Player Dossier

2020-2025

Illinois

James Thompson Jr.

DL • 6'6" • 300 lbs • Cincinnati, OH, USA

Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile

James Thompson Jr. shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 20.6 disruption score.

Usage / Role

81%

Major defensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

99

Top-tier box-score impact for a defensive lineman

lowelite

Reliability

100

Regular contributor with several takeover games

lowhigh

Star Power

73

High-upside career profile

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2022 Postseason · Wisconsin

202122222323242525

Snapshot

Career Teams
2
Unique Seasons
6
Program Path
Wisconsin • Illinois
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: Purdue

Player Story

James Thompson Jr. built his college career from 2020 through 2025 as a defensive lineman from Cincinnati, OH wearing No. 90, spending time with Illinois and Wisconsin. The clearest part of James Thompson Jr.'s...

Read the story
3★

Recruit Profile

Class 2020 · Rating 0.8467

Roger Bacon · Cincinnati, OH

Committed To
Wisconsin
Commit Date
Jan 1, 2020

James Thompson Jr., DL. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2022 Postseason · Wisconsin. James Thompson Jr. shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 20.6 disruption score.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Tackles
97
TFL
15
Sacks
7
QB hurries
5
Passes defended
3

Quick Answers

James Thompson Jr. quick answers

Latest team and position
Illinois · DL
Career Tackles
97
Tracked sample
6 unique seasons · 9 entries · 40 games
Best season
2022 Postseason · Wisconsin
Top game
Purdue
Recruit profile
3-star · Roger Bacon · Wisconsin
High school pipeline
Horn · 34 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
Latest roster
No. 90 · Senior
2025 Tackles rank
40 tackles · DL 57th (top 6%) · Big Ten 112th (top 15%) · National 925th (top 15%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesTacklesTFLSacksQB HurPDTDOverall
2020 Regular SeasonWisconsin00-0--0-
2021 Regular SeasonWisconsin57-0--038.6
2022 PostseasonWisconsin11111--066.6
2022 Regular SeasonWisconsin11205.512-066.6
2023 PostseasonWisconsin1220.50--045.1
2023 Regular SeasonWisconsin12275312045.1
2024 Regular SeasonWisconsin00-0--0-
2025 PostseasonIllinois1270.50.5--036.2
2025 Regular SeasonIllinois12332.51.521036.2

Related Context

Transfer Portal History

Matched portal movement

SeasonPathMovementValueDate
2025Wisconsin to IllinoisP4 to P488.6Dec 25, 2024

James Thompson Jr. played DL for Wisconsin and Illinois. Across 6 tracked seasons, James Thompson Jr. recorded 97 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2025 with Illinois.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2022 Postseason

Wisconsin paired 10.5 primary output with 17.5 efficiency.

Supporting note

2025 Postseason role shape

impact-led usage with 20.6 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value stayed steady

2025 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Multi-stop career journey

Production spans 2 team stops, with role shifts visible across Wisconsin, Illinois.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: Wisconsin

Loss with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.

Analysis workspace

Season Workbench

Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.

Season Explorer

Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.

2025 Postseason · Illinois

Games

12

Havoc Plays / G

0.7

Efficiency

20.6

Usage

4.9

Consistency

13.9

Best Game by takeover score

Wisconsin

Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.

Active game

Hover over a point

Hover or select a game to keep its context visible here without the page shifting around.

Game-by-Game Trend

Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.

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Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. Tennessee: 1. Western Illinois: 2. Duke: 0. Western Michigan: 0. Indiana: 0. USC: 1. Purdue: 0. Ohio State: 0. Washington: 0. Rutgers: 1. Wisconsin: 3. Northwestern: 0

Volume vs Efficiency

Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.

Low volumeHigh quality

High volumeHigh quality

Low volumeLower quality

High volumeLower quality

Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.

Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Tennessee: 7 by 39.2. Western Illinois: 2 by 28.3. Duke: 4 by 16.7. Western Michigan: 2 by 8.3. Indiana: 1 by 4.2. USC: 3 by 22.5. Purdue: 2 by 8.3. Ohio State: 7 by 29.2. Washington: 1 by 4.2. Rutgers: 4 by 26.7. Wisconsin: 4 by 46.7. Northwestern: 3 by 12.5

Split Comparison

Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.

Wins0.6 · Games = 8 · -0.1 vs Losses
Losses0.8 · Games = 4 · +0.1 vs Wins

Game Log

Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.

12 games

Featured metric

Havoc Plays

Top game by takeover score

Wisconsin

Best efficiency game

46.7 vs Wisconsin

Result
Tue 12/30vs TennesseeW 30-28720.500.500
Sun 11/30vs NorthwesternW 20-1331000
Sun 11/23@ WisconsinSplash gameL 10-2743110
Sat 11/1vs RutgersW 35-1342001
Sat 10/25@ WashingtonL 25-4210000
Sat 10/11vs Ohio StateL 16-3475000
Sat 10/4@ PurdueW 43-2721000
Sat 9/27vs USCW 34-32320.500.500
Sat 9/20@ IndianaL 10-6311000
Sat 9/13vs Western MichiganW 38-020000
Sat 9/6@ DukeW 45-1940000
Fri 8/29vs Western IllinoisSplash gameW 52-320100

Player Story

James Thompson Jr. story

James Thompson Jr. built his college career from 2020 through 2025 as a defensive lineman from Cincinnati, OH wearing No. 90, spending time with Illinois and Wisconsin. The clearest part of James Thompson Jr.'s career was his defensive production: 97 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, 7 sacks, and 3 passes defended across 40 career games in the available record. That gives James Thompson Jr.'s career enough real context without stretching the story beyond the available production.

Career Arc

Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.

  1. 1

    Wisconsin

    2020-2024

    Opening stop

  2. 2

    Illinois

    2025

    Final stop

Season Value Progression

202020212022202220232023202420252025
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2020 Regular SeasonWisconsin0
2021 Regular SeasonWisconsin05.81.20
2022 PostseasonWisconsin10.517.513.710.5
2022 Regular SeasonWisconsin10.517.513.70
2023 PostseasonWisconsin11.519.74.91
2023 Regular SeasonWisconsin11.519.74.90
2024 Regular SeasonWisconsin0-11.5
2025 PostseasonIllinois820.64.98
2025 Regular SeasonIllinois820.64.90

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

@ Purdue

Week 4 · W 38-17 · Conference game

Win with 4 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

4

Havoc Plays

88.3 takeover

4 disruption/tackle impact with 88.3 takeover score.

#2

@ No. 85 Wisconsin

Week 13 · L 10-27 · Conference game

3

Havoc Plays

82.2 takeover

Loss with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

3 disruption/tackle impact with 82.2 takeover score.

#3

@ Washington State

Week 2 · L 22-31

3.5

Havoc Plays

81.1 takeover

Loss with 3.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

3.5 disruption/tackle impact with 81.1 takeover score.

#4

@ Oklahoma State

Week 1 · W 24-17 · Postseason

2

Havoc Plays

74.7 takeover

Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2 disruption/tackle impact with 74.7 takeover score.

#5

@ Michigan State

Week 7 · L 28-34 · Conference game

2

Havoc Plays

66.1 takeover

Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2 disruption/tackle impact with 66.1 takeover score.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2022 Postseason · Wisconsin

10.5 primary output · 17.5 efficiency · 13.7 usage

66.6

#2

2022 Regular Season · Wisconsin

66.6

10.5 primary · 17.5 efficiency · 13.7 usage

#3

2023 Postseason · Wisconsin

45.1

11.5 primary · 19.7 efficiency · 4.9 usage

Milestones

6

Impact games

8

Splash games

0

10+ tackle games