Hyde on Zach

Time to talk Hall of Fame for Thomas.

Now that the emotion has faded and Ray Lewis’ speech actually ended, it’s time to consider the next cycle of Pro Football Hall of Fame candidates for professional worth and historical merit.

And you know what?

It’s time to wonder why former Dolphins linebacker Zach Thomas isn’t mentioned. It’s time to note former Dolphins guard Bob Kuechenberg is the only eight-time finalist not to be voted in the Hall. But he’s property of the behind-the-curtain Senior Committee now.

Thomas is in the mainstream discussion of Hall voters. Or should be. He somehow hasn’t been in any conversation to this point or even survived the annual cut-down to the top 50 players, like the one that’s made later this month.

Too small, too slow, too common, too much a part of a team without playoff success. That’s the knock on Thomas.

But too invisible?

Hall of Fames matter because they confirm what we saw. The head-scratcher here is Thomas and just-inducted Hall of Famer

Brian Urlacher are the same player. They had the same career in the same NFL era bolstered by similar numbers.

Thomas was a five-time All-Pro player to Urlacher’s four. Thomas was a seven-time Pro Bowl player to Urlacher’s eight. Each was his conference’s rookie of the year.

Urlacher did have a spotlight Thomas never did. He was named the league’s defensive player of the year when the Bears went to the Super Bowl. But that’s an outlier in Urlacher’s career.

He was on two top-five defenses and six in the bottom third. Thomas was on five defenses in the top five and only one that ranked as low as 20th. That Dolphins defense was considered his and Jason Taylor’s defense for nearly a decade, too. They went into the Dolphins Honor Roll on the stadium together. Right?

Taylor went to another level when Nick Saban unlocked his talent. But let’s stay with Thomas here. Don’t stop with the Urlacher comparison. Throw in the five Hall of Fame linebackers whose careers overlapped with Thomas: Ray Lewis, Junior Seau, Derrick Brooks, Kevin Greene and Urlacher. Thomas ranks among them second in tackles, third in forced fumbles and fifth in the sexy stat of sacks. Hey, he was a middle linebacker, not an edge rusher. There’s still a place for players carrying lunch boxes in the Hall, isn’t there?

Let’s be real, too. Thomas wasn’t Ray Lewis or Junior Seau. He didn’t have full impact that Brooks did. So this isn’t a bull rush to say he belongs in the Hall, as everything stacks up.

It’s to say he belongs in the conversation, though. Top 50, sure. Top 15? If Greene and Urlacher made it, why not Thomas? Is it a lack of team success? These five other linebackers played in a Super Bowl, after all. They get rewarded for that. Shouldn’t voters weigh that idea against the backdrop of team help?

It’s odd, the way the Hall of Fames work. Baseball is the only Hall with a populist ballot, a bigenough group so a small inner circle can’t control things. Basketball is the oddest Hall, so weird that no one even knows who votes for it.

Football is a close-door meeting full of well-meaning voters full of their own research, biases and regional loyalty. Kuechenberg, for instance, ran into resistance because teammates Jim Langer and Larry Little are in the Hall.

Three offensive linemen aren’t in the Hall off one team. At least until this year. Jerry Kramer became the third of his Green Bay team inducted to the Hall. Kramer delivered a good speech about patience in Canton this weekend.

Maybe Kuechenberg will share a similar thought one day. Maybe Thomas, too. If so, it’s fitting. Nothing in football was gift-wrapped for them. Kuechenberg was cut by his first team, Philadelphia.

Thomas? A fifth-round pick who looked so little like a big, tough NFL player that Atlanta pitcher Tom Glavine threw him keys outside a hotel, thinking he was a valet driver. When Thomas told a barber he was a football player, he was asked, “What high school?”

Put him in the discussion for the Hall. The numbers confirm it. His career demands it.