After finishing the IDP Player Movement column last week, it occurred to me that Draft Day 2008 represents the end of an era. The safest (always) and greatest (arguably) IDP option of all-time is no longer the most reliable defensive option on draft boards across the country: Dolphins LB Zach Thomas has moved on after 12 seasons in Miami to the Dallas Cowboys, a new scheme, and into the twilight of his career.

It’s not that Thomas can’t recapture old glory for stretches in Dallas (in fact, at some point, I’ll certainly snag Thomas in my draft before the likes of Angelo Crowell or even all five LB options in New England), but the days of Zach Thomas, defensive anchor, are probably gone for fantasy owners. Which made me wonder: Is Thomas the best IDP option of his era? Or more likely, was he the definitive “safest choice” among active players on draft day?

My solution to this conundrum is admittedly arbitrary but as I told you long ago, Will Hunting doesn’t read this column, so you won’t find any standard deviation, medians, modes, or anything else that put you to sleep when you were forced to study. (Any nodding off will be a direct result of my writing, thank you).

I researched the last seven seasons for the top IDP options of this era (2001-2007 to be fair to some of the younger stars, as if we included the mid-90s this would be a two-player comparison between Thomas and Tampa Bay’s Derrick Brooks) and my initial thought was validated: Zach Thomas was indeed the safest game-by-game IDP option of his generation.

My main goal was to determine which star produced the fewest poor, or “dud” games, rather than just check each season’s final cumulative stats which can be skewed by huge single-game outputs such as Titans LB Keith Bulluck’s 3-INT, 3 PD effort in Week Two last year.

(For newcomers to my IDP world, “dud” games are defined as a single outing in which a player hurt your team relative to others theoretically started at that position in your league).

The players studied included:
Thomas (Mia)
London Fletcher-Baker (Stl/Buf/Was)
Ray Lewis (Bal)
Brian Urlacher (Chi)
Keith Bulluck (Ten)
Mike Peterson (Ind/Jac)
Donnie Edwards (KC/SD/KC)
Derrick Brooks (TB)

Antonio Pierce (Was/NYG); Nick Barnett (GB); Lance Briggs (Chi); and Will Witherspoon (Car/Stl) just missed the service time cut-off. (Feel free to ask for a breakdown of someone you feel I have omitted).

There were 112 possible games played for each player during this time (’01-’07). Thomas played in 94 of them. In those 94 games, he produced a total of 6 duds. SIX. In other words, Zach Thomas hurt your starting lineup less than once a year in the 2^nd half of his career, or a time when most decided he was too old to play at an All Pro level.

The Results for His Peers:

London Fletcher-Baker: 112 games played (0 missed) – 16 duds (Including 0 in 2006).
Ray Lewis: 85 games played (27 missed) – 11 duds

Brian Urlacher: 104 games played (8 missed) – 13 duds
Keith Bulluck: 96 games played (0 missed, but Bulluck was not a full-time starter in 2001 so I omitted the season from his study) – 15 duds, including 8 last year. Bulluck would have fared much better had this blog posted April 2007.
Mike Peterson: 88 games played (24 missed) – 19 duds
Donnie Edwards: 112 games played (0 missed) – 20 duds (Including 7 in his last 30 games and 3 of his last 5 in ’07).
Derrick Brooks: 112 games played (0 missed) – 30 duds (Including 6 last year and his last 3 of ’07).

Admittedly, there are a couple of weaknesses in my method, not the least of which is the inclusion of Week 17 for the breakdowns (several players produced duds in what was likely less one half of play in multiple Week 17 games) and, of course, the belief that a missed game does not constitute a dud (as you can insert a healthy sub).

So whether you agree with me, and believe Thomas is the reigning IDP king, or if you agree with Woody Allen’s belief that “Half the secret of success in life is just showing up,” and London Fletcher-Baker is your league’s IDP king, we can all agree that our IDP rosters will be a little shakier this season with Thomas in Dallas and when he finally decides to hang up the cleats.  

Who knows, maybe at that point Odell Thurman will be the IDP king.