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I agree with all your pre-draft strategy. I would not worry as much this year about paying a lit bit more than normal to keep guys like Watson and Faulk.
Personally, I would go after Cody unless Wilfork had signed an extension. One year with both is fine. Trading Wilfork for a 1st is fine if he won't extend. The future of our defense is in the balance. We need a nose tackle for the future and 3-4 nose tackles take at least haf a year to develop. The time is now. And signing Casey Hampton is a fine option.
If we franchise Wilfork and keep him (but haven't signed him to a long term extension), then Cody is definitely on my short list in the 1st round, along with a DE/OLB (Dunlap is the most interesting guy to me right now, but has obvious questionmarks) and Spiller. Any of those options would provide terrific value in the 20's. I love the idea of Warren-Cody-Wilfork at DL, but I'm not sure I like it more than getting a top pass rusher or an all-purpose weapon like Spiller. Tough call.
The Thomas situation is an interesting one. The OPEN question is the realtionship between Thomas and Belichick. Obviously if Belichick wants him gone, he's gone. If Thomas is worth $5M a year and a 3rd for someone else, he should be worth keeping. After all, if Thomas leaves, there will be a considerable hole in our defense. He played more than 50% of the reps this year in our top 10 defense. Obviously if we pick up Dansby or some other dream player, Thomas can be considered excess baggage. In any case, no decision NEEDS to be made about Thomas. He can be kept until the team is sure of his free agent replacement.
You're absolutely right, there's no NEED to rush into resolving the Thomas situation, and I certainly wouldn't rush into anything rashly. Thomas has skills and value one way or another, and I certainly wouldn't cut off our nose to spite our face.
I would very much like to see a true SILB to play next to Mayo. I think that this would help our defense tremendously, by getting better interior pressure and by freeing up Mayo to be more of a weakside playmaker, which better suits his skills. I'm also influenced by Jays52's strategic analysis of a few weeks ago, which suggested that our defensive pressure could be improved as much by upgrading our interior pressure as by outside pass rushers. At this point I see 3 ways to go:
1. Sign a FA. Dansby is the obvious choice. It will cost Arizona 120% of his current $9.6M franchise tag to franchise him (over $11.5M), and I've heard that there's a good chance the Cardinals just let him walk in free agency. I don't know how much it would cost to get him, but I think he would bring terrific veteran leadership as well as versatility. If we somehow get Dansby, then I see either Thomas or Burgess as expendable. An OLB lineup of TBC-Dansby-Mayo and either Thomas or Burgess would be reasonably nice, especially if we have a couple of high upside prospects to develop at DE/OLB.
2. Draft a SILB. The options here are trading up for Rolando McClain (expensive) or drafting a cheaper alternative (Spikes or Norwood - still not cheap). I would prefer Dansby at this point - McClain is a somewhat more talented version of Dansby, but Dansby is an experienced veteran. I'd rather use our draft picks in other areas if possible.
3. Use Thomas at SILB. He did reasonably well here in 2007. I know Jays52 disagrees, but I think AD could be reasonably valuable for us along with Mayo inside. This is sort of my fallback option at this point.