Now thats a good comment, I say two things first , do not trade him yet.
first, he is the only vet on defensive ends that we have with experience. I am sure your all aware of when Parcells pulled Ellis at the end of the year, along with Glover, and our defense suffered. True, Dat was hurt with Singleton, but thats just my point. Remember when we had our young great defensive line in 91, Tolbert, Jones, Jeffcoat, Lett- the youngest pup. WE all suffered through growing pains with them from 89 to 90.
IN 92, we got Casillas, and Haley, then what happened, Super Bowl. A fierce pass rush, with Maryland too. But experience was on defensive line. Then, think about 73, 74, with Ed Too Tall Jones, Harvey Martin, youth was good, but we surrered experience wise, It generally takes a young defensive line 3 years to get to the top. Think about the steel curtain, with Mean Joe Green, it took them 3 years to jell with experience.
Marcus Spears one year experience, Chris Canty one year experience, DeMarcus Ware one year experience, Ratliff 1/2 year experience, Coleman about 4 years of experience, but just a good run blocker, not good pass rusher. Thomas one year experience, WHOM MAY I ADD IS OUR MOST EXPERIENCED DEFENSIVE LINEMAN-GREG ELLIS.
Only way I trade Ellis, say some team offers us a # 1 draft pick, which is highly unlikely, best you can get for him is a #2, or # 3 pick, or say some team, that has a ALL PRO OFFENSIVE GUARD, OR ALL PRO DEFENSIVE END wants out, too, and he is about 27-28, then I say yes. But he needs to be a young offensive lineman. Say someone like Robert Gallery with Raiders, or Bryant McKinnie with Vikings or Leonard Davis with Cardinals. Someone that is just right on edge of ALL PRO, or is, and they want out too.
To me, we do need a young dominant offensive linemen, or dominant WR, our young defense is being built, if not this year, our defense will be NASTY IN 2007. I am talking about a defense like steel curtain, or doomsday with ed jones, harvey martin, thomas henderson, john dutton, randy white, bob brunig, etc. Then you offset that with a young offense like Dallas trio of Emmitt Smith, Micheal Irwin & Troy Aikman with Mark Stepnoski, Erik Williams, Nate Newton, Jay Novachek.
So, I say wait, sometimes teams get hurt, like we did last year, when Flozell went down, then Riveria got hurt, and they dont have a good backup left offensive tackle. Some team may have their star defensive linemen go down, and need Greg Ellis, then you can make that trade. If not, if this team is going to be as good as I think it is. Then, Ellis will still get his sacks, etc, make the Super Bowl, then you can trade him the following year, with Super Bowl honors to some team that would pay for him. Since someone pointed out, that we have him under contract with a 7 year extension in 2003.
So, I say wait, see what happens this year, either some other teams star defensive player goes down, then Ellis has great value, or we go to the Super Bowl like I think we will and Ellis would have better trade value in the draft. At least a # 2 pick, with maybe a 4th or 5th rounder, maybe even future consideration the next year.
