What the hell is Jerry thinking?

What originally was reported as a fairly sound deal (QB Jon Kitna to Dallas for an undisclosed late round draft pick, presumably somewhere between a 5-7), has turned out to be much more as instead your Dallas Cowboys have shipped CB Anthony Henry to Detroit in exchange for Jon Kitna. The media in and around town is crowing that Jerry "gave up too much" for Jon Kitna. To which I say, that's a fucking understatement.

Look, I'm not here to tell you Anthony Henry doesn't have holes in his game, he most assuredly does. Nor am I going to tell you that in a sense of pure talent evaluation (ie, were each player on a draft board and you had to choose between them) that you might not even go with Kitna. What I am going to ask you though is, who the hell trades a veteran starting cornerback for a backup quarterback? I get it, you want an upgrade over the woefully abominable Brad Johnson-you want a quarterback who can start a few games if need be and hopefully win a couple to keep you in the race until your workhorse (Romo) can return from injury.

But are you going to tell me that Jon Kitna is so head-and-shoulders above the rest of the class, that you had to trade a starting CB for him? When Jeff Garcia, Rex Grossman, Kyle Boller, and Byron Leftwich are freely available on the free agent market, you determine that you simply must have Jon Kitna-a player that claimed he was forced on to IR last season by Detroit so that they could get a look at Dan Orvlovsky, and rumored to be released soon? Jerry's rush to secure a trade for a backup QB when there are quality backups (note quality backup, not starters) still on the market is befuddling, especially with the rumors that Kitna was to be released anyway.

Further complicating matters, is what this does to Dallas' secondary. Again, I'm not going to claim that Anthony Henry is Deion Sanders, but he was your starting CB2 behind only Terrence Newman on the depth chart, and he did start all 16 games last year. Was 2008 an off-year for him (16g, 50tkl, 2sck, 5pdf, 1int)? Slightly compared to his previous three seasons (averages out at 13.6g, 55tkl, 0sck, 14.6 pdf, 3.6 int), but those numbers also reflect the increase in blitz's Wade Phillips called for him and a change in role from CB to a hybrid CB/FS. I would suggest to you, and the numbers back it up, that as much as you may personally have a vendetta or a negative opinion of Anthony Henry, the man filled a fairly important role on this team-and did so without being a distracting player. With Henry moved to Detroit, here is where the Cowboys secondary enters the draft;

CB: Terrence Newman, Orlando Scandrick, Mike Jenkins, Alan Ball
FS: Ken Hamlin, Pat Watkins, Courtney Brown
SS: Roy Williams, Keith Davis (technically Tra Battle as well, but he's a ST guy)

Do you see what a disasterous position the Dallas Cowboys are now in? Now break down their draft picks, after the trade for Roy Williams 11: 0 1st round picks, 1 2nd round pick, 1 3rd round pick, 2 4th round picks, 2 5th round picks, 1 6th round pick, 2 7th round picks.

Instead of simply signing a FA QB off the street, the Cowboys now have their backup QB position settled and now need atleast 2 CBs-one of which needs to be NFL ready (there goes your 2nd round pick) in case Jenkins game doesnt improve and/or there's an injury. Furthermore, with the assumption that Roy Williams get released (which got much more difficult to do with this trade-so it may not happen now), you're also going to need to draft an NFL ready strong safety (Keith Davis is a great ST captain, but not a great SS) in addition to another young SS and a young FS.

This trade forces your hand, and forces you to either overpay for the (low quality) free agent DBs remaining, or forces you to gamble that you can draft an NFL ready CB and S. And considering the Cowboys long history of drafting CBs under Jerry (its really embarassing), I don't see how you can possibly expect that to be the case.

In short, Jerry didn't just give up "too much" for Kitna, he mortgaged and sold the farm for a player that history suggests, should he start more than a few games, your season is sunk anyway. This trade is simply assinine.