FRISCO, Texas – Cowboys defensive tackle Solomon Thomas is having one of the strongest starts to a season in his career. After four games with the Cowboys, he's already halfway to his season total for tackles a year ago with 13, is tied for the most stuffs on the team with four, and is second in run stops with nine.
Now, the eight-year veteran will go on the road with Dallas to face his former team in the New York Jets this coming Sunday, where his focus is set on getting the Cowboys back in the win column.
"Super excited to see my old teammates," Thomas said. "I love those guys. I had a great time out there, super grateful for the fans, the community just giving me the chance to continue my career there. Very thankful for that, but mostly just ready to get up there and get a win, get better personally, and get better collectively."
In three seasons with the Jets, Thomas played in 50 games and tallied 83 tackles, 14 tackles for loss and nine sacks. He learned and developed a lot under defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton, who he followed to Dallas after Brian Schottenheimer hired Whitecotton for the same role on his inaugural coaching staff.
While it'll be nice to go back and see some of his former teammates, going back to play at MetLife Stadium is bittersweet for Thomas. In Week 2 of the 2020 NFL season, Solomon Thomas' fourth year in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, he tore his ACL, which has been a recent trend at that stadium. Due to the nature of those kinds of injuries, Thomas has been an advocate for wanting grass fields league-wide.
"It's just frustrating as a league that we still have turf," Thomas said. All the best leagues in the world, like the Premier Soccer League, their players won't even practice on turf. You see guys league wide getting hurt on turf and it's just frustrating."
Most recently, it was Giants star wide receiver Malik Nabers who suffered a season-ending ACL tear on Sunday, ending his second season just four games into the year. Former Cowboys defensive end Micah Parsons suffered an injury that sidelined him multiple weeks there last season.
"The statistics are there that it's worse for you, and guys just feel it," Thomas said. "Guys will tell you, whether the statistics are there or not, guys will tell you that 'Hey, I feel worse on turf.' Always pushing for better services for our players, hopefully one day that'll happen."
Nonetheless, Thomas knows he and his teammates will have to go there and be able to play without being timid. That is especially the case after a three straight weeks of allowing 30 or more points to opposing offenses, although Dallas nearly came away with a win in Sunday's 40-40 tie with the Green Bay Packers.
Even though it hasn't all been pretty, Thomas believes that the unit is taking steps in the right direction
"It's really close," Thomas said when asked how close the margin is between where Dallas is and wants to be defensively. "We fix some things up front and the back end as a team, and we're going to be a great team. And we are that great team right now, we just have to play like it, we have to execute like it."
The main aspect that gives Thomas confidence despite the Cowboys sitting at last in the NFL in team defense is that what they see on tape that's wrong isn't broken beyond repair.
"Everything that happened on the field was correctable," Thomas said. "Things that we can get better at, things that we can fix. No panic button, the connection of this team is the most important thing, so stay connected, stay believing, don't let anything fracture and just keep going from that."
A big part of that comes with having something you can't teach: Effort. Thomas says that was one of the biggest things he took away from Week 4's game, despite the end result not being ideal.
"Osa played his tail off, Kenny Clark played his tail off, a lot of guys out there played their tail off. The effort was great, and the positive was that everyone fought. It wasn't the result we wanted, it wasn't exactly how we wanted to play, it wasn't our standard, but we fought to the end."
"A tie is frustrating. It feels like a loss, but it's not a loss. We know we can come out with that win, so we're staying positive, moving on and going to get better."
Their next "championship opportunity," as head coach Brian Schottenheimer calls each game, comes in the first of a two-game road stand for the Cowboys against the New York Jets.
