There's some background around Hitchens (of all players) here that you might not be aware of. One of our more active posters put a flag in the ground on draft day that Hitchens couldn't play and had no business on an NFL roster, and then has systematically downplayed Hitch's contributions for the last four years. So you have a backlog of threads about a competent LB who's improved each of his first four seasons being less effective than he really is.
That aside, I still think Anthony Hitchens gets badly underrated by most Cowboys fans. He's an above-average ILB with position flex. He's a good teammate, a guy who's still only 25 four years in, he's smart, outplays his physical skills, plays hurt, and is the kind of guy you can build a defense around. He makes some of his biggest plays in big moments. I think he's a good player.
I hope we get somewhere with Martin and Lawrence early enough that we can get Hitchens a deal he's happy with before he hits the market. His agent probably doesn't allow that to happen, but sometimes guys are happy with a nice commitment from a team when they're otherwise in a good situation. That probably doesn't happen with Hitch, because he's got Jaylon behind him looking to start eventually, and Lee to the left of him still playing at a higher level than Hitch can play at. We're probably going to let him get to the market, and some team will offer him a bigger deal than we want to pay.
Which is going to suck, because he's one of our better defenders and knows what he's doing. He can fill in adequately for Lee when he inevitably goes out. And Jaylon is not ready, I don't care what the team wants from him. He can't do it yet. That means poking another hole in the defensive roster when we need to be plugging them.