Full artical:PACKERS: Thomas gets a head start
11:01 pm 7/31/04
Jason WildeWisconsin State Journal
GREEN BAY - Joey Thomas has had his St. Norbert College dorm room all to himself the last two nights. That meant first dibs on which bed he wanted, a little extra personal space in the cramped quarters and not having to worry about anyone's snoring keeping him awake.
What it also meant - with his roommate, friend and fellow Green Bay Packers rookie cornerback, first-round pick Ahmad Carroll, still unsigned - was that Thomas got a head start on Carroll at the three rookies-only training-camp practices.
And with the Packers preparing for life without Mike McKenzie and looking for a potential replacement while the disgruntled starting left cornerback holds out, Thomas wants to take advantage of every chance he gets.
"I have to make the most of the opportunity I've been given," said Thomas, who signed his four-year contract ($720,000 signing bonus) Friday morning in time for the first practice. "I'm here, so I'm just going to try to maximize my time and get the most out of it."
Thomas sees his relationship with Carroll as more of a friendship than a competition, so he was careful not to say he was getting a leg up on his pal, who still has time to sign before Monday morning's first full-squad practice.
But the reality is that someone will have to start at left corner in the Sept. 13 regular-season opener at Carolina, and if it isn't McKenzie, who demanded a trade in April and has vowed to never play for the Packers again, it could be Carroll or Thomas.
Although Michael Hawthorne is the de facto starter, the Packers coaches aren't afraid of starting a rookie if Carroll or Thomas outplays the veteran. After all, McKenzie, a third-round pick in 1999, started as a rookie, beating out first-round pick Antuan Edwards and second-rounder Fred Vinson.
"I think it's a challenge for any rookie to start - it was a challenge for (middle linebacker) Nick Barnett to start last year for us - but I think sometimes we as coaches are overprotective of that. We want experience over youth sometimes," Packers coach Mike Sherman said. "Obviously the experience isn't what Mike had, but there was a time that Mike was a rookie who did start. So someone else is going to be able to do that as well."
Added defensive coordinator Bob Slowik: "To be quite honest with you, it doesn't matter where you come from, where you've been drafted. Once you're out here on the field, it's just, 'Can he play or can't he play' And Joey's been doing well."
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Thomas, who the coaches admit outplayed the 5-10, 185-pound Carroll during the post-draft minicamp before leveling off during the June camp, comes from Division I-AA Montana State, so the jump in competition level is greater for him. Although no one was suggesting Carroll would be way behind because he missed these three practices, it can only help Thomas.
"I think it's very important, especially this kind of individual attention," Slowik said. "It's going to help Joey, and by the same token, if someone misses it, they miss out on an opportunity. But Ahmad will have to get in here, whenever that is, and find a way to catch up."
As of Saturday evening, talks between Carroll's agent, Eugene Parker, and Packers vice president of player finance Andrew Brandt were ongoing. But with Brandt and other club officials out of the office Friday for the memorial service for vice president of football operations Mark Hatley, who died Tuesday, negotiations have been on-and-off.
"We're trying to get that worked out in the next couple of days," Sherman said. "It was slowed down primarily because of what has transpired here."
Thomas admits he must improve fundamentally - "In college, I got away with a lot of things just being a pretty good athlete, and now, I can't," he said - but he also believes he will contribute immediately, whether as a starter or a backup.
"Anything's possible. Anything could happen," Thomas said. "The goal is to get ready for whatever my role might be. It might just be special teams, it might just be nickel or dime, but whatever my role is, I just want to be ready so if they stick me in, I'll be prepared."
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