He was the lone NFL assistant to visit in Lubbock, Texas, that afternoon to meet the too-small linebacker. He asked to watch the linebacker’s worst game with him, worked him out and then did something that surprised the draft prospect.
“I didn’t do 24 bench presses like you wrote — I only did 22,” Zach Thomas told Miami Dolphins assistant Mike Westhoff.
Maybe that’s the moment it started, the first of several dots you can connect to Jimmy Johnson making the draft pick with the greatest value in team history for any player not named Dan Marino.