What could have been

With the talk of us needing offensive line help going on and many people blaming Adams for the problems last year I thought I would take a look back at when he was a free agent last year and take a different route.  Before the start of the 2008 season Adams signed a 6 year deal to remain in Dallas for the remainder of his career. 

If we wouldn't have resigned him and taken the route of drafting our next LT of the future here's what could have happened.  In the 2008 draft there were 8 offensive tackles taken in the first round, but only one was drafted after we picked at 22.  The tackles that were taken were Jake Long who went 1st to Miami, Ryan Clady who went 12th to Denver, Chris Williams who went 14th to Chicago, Branden Albert who went 15th to Kansas City, Gosder Cherilus who went 17th to Detroit, Jeff Otah who went 19th to Carolina, Sam Baker who went 21st to Atlanta, and Duane Brown who went 26th to Houston.  We took Felix Jones at 22 and then traded back into the first round at 25 to take Mike Jenkins.  If we wouldn't have resigned Adams we could have taken Brown at 25, but he gave up 11.5 sacks for Houston last year.  Jake Long was not an option.  To trade up 10 spots to take Clady would have cost a lot.  Trading up for Chris Williams is possible but would have cost a lot also as would trading up for Albert and Cherilus.  Even moving up to take Otah would have cost us our pick at 22.  To make a trade that wouldn't have cost us our first round pick we could have traded this years first round pick to move to pick 20 and take Baker but Atlanta took him at 21 and they traded for that pick so we might have hoped that he would fall to 22.  If we had moved it would have been trading either pick 22 last year and maybe not getting Jones or trading our first round pick this year and not getting Roy Williams.  Now I know what some of you might be thinking why not wait until later to take our tackle.  Of the tackles taken in rounds 2-7 only 3 played significant time.  Anthony Collins went in the 4th round to Cincinnati and started 6 games, Carl Nicks went in the 5th round to the Saints and started 13 games but all of them at guard, and John Greco went in the 3rd round to the Rams and started 1 game.  By the way of the 8 tackles taken in the first round only 3 started every game last year (Long, Clady, and Brown). 

Suddenly Adams looks like a good player.