Thompson has to look inside himself and decide on one of two things now. Does he stay with the philosophy he has used in the past or does he now make some adjustments.
The goal of any GM is to build a quality roster that can contend for the SB. Ted Thompson has obviously done that by not overpaying but keeping the core players that make up the roster. This may put him in somewhat of a quandry in regards to decisions he must make soon concerning guys like Jenkins and J. Jones.
I think the team would slip without these two. The question is how much would they slip and what is it worth to keep them. Ted Thompson has the luxury of having some good players that are not costing much at the moment when you look at Shields, Zombo, Weldon, and Starks. Obviously at some point he will want to address some of those contracts if they continue to produce at a higher level than their contracts command but for the time being he definately has a few more chips on the table to play with.
Also, if the negotiations go the way I suspect there will be a rookie pay scale put in place and these crazy numbers put out there for guys that haven't played an NFL game yet will be brought in line.
Does this mean now might be the time to go a little over the budget to sustain the roster with some key resigns? I don't know. It will be interesting to see how Ted Thompson views all these moving parts and how he decides to move forward.
"The train is leaving the station."