The parallels aren’t exact by any stretch. Xavier Thomas is an outside linebacker, Darnell Dockett was a defensive lineman, a three-technique with his hand in the dirt. Dockett came into the NFL talking to anyone that would listen, Thomas isn’t necessarily quiet but he plays it more close to the vest.
As someone who was covering the Cardinals when Dockett showed up back in 2004 and, of course now with Thomas, it’s hard not to see a bit of a facial resemblance. But in both cases you have a player driven to be a quarterback-wrecker, players that were taken later in the draft — Dockett in the third round, Thomas in the fifth — than either felt they should have gone because their college careers left just enough questions.
Dockett had a heck of a career with the Cardinals, with 40.5 sacks, 90 tackles for loss and three Pro Bowls. Thomas has a long way to get there.
But there is another parallel between Dockett and Thomas. Confidence.
“I never had a doubt in my mind that I was going to make the team, knowing my capabilities and what I intended to do,” Thomas said.
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