So that's it. Thomas is off the market. I think this is one of the first marquee signings (not resignings). It's a bit of a weird pick to me, since I seem to remember them getting pretty solid seasons out of their current MLBs, and they've also invested a lot of high picks to get young players at that position. They've got Bobby Carpenter heading the group, who unfortunately has mostly been a core special teams player for them (Career: 37 Tackles, 1.5 Sacks), with the 18th pick in the 1rst round of the 2006 NFL Draft. Following him they have Akin Ayodele who has played two seasons for the Cowboys after not resigning with the Jaguars who drafted him with the 89th pick in the 3rd round of the 2002 NFL Draft (393 Career Tackles, 9.5 Sacks, 8 FFs, 5 INTs). Next up we have the other starter from this year, Bradie James (103rd Overall Pick, 4th Round, 2003 Draft). He has 356 career tackles, 5.5 Sacks, 3 FF, and 1 INT. Finally, they have Kevin Burnett, who split time with Ayodele this year, who was a Round 2, 42nd Overall Pick in 2005. He has 110 career Tackles, 2 Sacks, 3 FF, and 1 INT.
My problem with the Thomas hiring comes with the fact that taking him means they'll be replacing the Burnett, Ayodele combination and starting Thomas full-time. Those players obviously are great for insuring that in case Thomas gets injured they'll have capable back-ups, but it will also hinder their development. One of these players is on the verge of being a full time starter, perhaps both. The Cowboys have sunk high picks or money into that position for the last four years, and right when these guys are starting to get 100 tackles in a season (either as one person in the case of James, or split in the case of Ayodele and Burnett) they cut them off at the knees and send them to the bench for at least one season, depending on whether the Cowboys resign Thomas next year or if he retires. It's a really, really strange decision to me, halting the development of potentially franchise players to use a proven player for a single year. I've said it before and I will say it again. The best teams are those that are play-off contenders year in and year out, and for all the hype about the Cowboys last year, they fell flat because this is their first trip to the post-season in something like ten years. The Giants were a perennial one and out team, but they had been to the playoffs something like four years running. There's something to be said for the fact that a team built to get to the playoffs every year gets lucky at least once, instead of a team built to make one run that can be taken down by anything from a key injury (to Terrell Owens) to a bad opponent (Giants' pass rush, which negates Jason Witten, a key Cowboys player). The hiring of Zach Thomas would make sense for a team with no answers at MLB and needing a player to fill the hole, and very capably at that, while they draft/develop someone new. The Zach Thomas hiring does NOT make sense for a team that has developing, young players who will fuel playoff runs in the years to come. Nonetheless, Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys, is the kind of guy who needs to win right now, and this hiring is a symptom of that. I wish him the best of luck, but you don't have to look outside the division to see what that kind of thinking does to a team (see Washington Redskins under Dan Snyder).
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