It is a classic pre-NFL Draft debate, and here inside The Star in Frisco, the Dallas Cowboys are deeply engaged in a high-profile example of it:

Do you want to trade for THE Earl Thomas, one of the two best safeties in football, creating a virtual lock for excellence at the position?

Or do you want to draft a potential "Earl Thomas Jr.'' -- with the lower asset-management costs but without any of the guarantees -- by working your way to the selection of Florida State safety Derwin James?

As I write this, the Cowboys are 10 days in on finalizing their Big Board, with another week to go before they are scheduled to draft in the No. 19 slot in the NFL Draft. It is too early for them to know whether James is a sure-fire top-12 pick, which would make a move up to get him largely prohibitive. It is also too early for the Cowboys and the Seattle Seahawks to show all their cards regarding the continuation of trade talks that might bring the Pro Bowler "home'' to his native Texas. (I know Seattle has asked for that No. 19 pick, I know Dallas has said "no,'' I know that Thomas was hinting as a holdout while hoping for a contract extension but that the Seattle GM now says that won't happen, and yet I know that he's also said positive things to Seahawks teammates about their unbreakable bonds.)

The debate has surely already begin. The major players sitting around the war room at The Star:

*Owner Jerry Jones - No, he won't just want to "make a splash'' because the draft is being staged at his house, AT&T Stadium; he'll want to make a "splash,'' you hope, because a headline-grabbing move is also the right move. (You'll also want to avoid the misinformation that leads the world to continue to think that he "almost turned the card in on Johnny Manziel.)

A driving component for Jerry, I think: A comment he issued to me a couple of years ago, when at Oxnard he said, "I ain't got time to have a bad time.''

I thought then it was a great hook for a country song; I think now it's also what a passionate NFL owner thinks when he's in his mid-70's and hasn't won big since he was in his early-50's.

*COO Stephen Jones - Jerry owns the asset-management safe. But as demonstrated in the Dez Bryant goodbye, Stephen has memorized the combination.

*Personnel boss Will McClay - Speaking very generally: If you do what McClay does for a living ... you want to draft. Draft, draft, draft.

*Defensive assistant Kris Richard - I wouldn't be surprised if he's a developing voice here. Yeah, he's only been with the Cowboys for a matter of weeks. Yeah, he's underneath coordinator Rod Marinelli on the organizational chart ... and you know Rod sometimes wants to sneak in after midnight and re-adjust some of McClay's Big Board. But the organization views him as an up-and-comer, even though his career got sidetracked by his dismissal in Seattle.

Yeah, Seattle -- where he teamed with Earl Thomas to create one of the best NFL defenses of the decade.

*Head coach Jason Garrett - I know for a fact that Garrett, purely speaking from an X-and-O perspective, thinks Earl Thomas hung the moon. He's one of those defensive guys who the offense -- quarterback, coaching staff, O-line, all of 'em -- need to locate before the snap. Garrett sees him as a one-man strategic wrecking crew.

Factored into the Garrett view, I have to believe, too: Jerry "ain't'' the only one who "ain't got time.''

So ... Garrett, maybe "Red Man Walking,'' needs to win now, and therefore wouldn't be human if he failed to see the insta-benefits of a pick-No.-50-for-Thomas trade. The salary-cap constraints of giving Thomas a contract extension worth more than $10 mil annually? That's not really this coach's problem.

I think it'll be Will McClay who might forcefully counter that if Dallas has James with a high first-round grade, as a guy who merits being a top-12 choice, and they watch as he slides just a bit nearer No. 19 ... the Cowboys should have been prepared by laying the groundwork to make a move up a couple of spots from 19 (with 10 overall picks, they have the late-round ammunition to easily do so).

And if McClay's department gets the NFL-wide vibe that such a slide is in play? Dallas shouldn't do anything with a Seattle trade and pick No. 50 until it knows what will happen with James in the 19 range.

(By the way: This piece's focus on James is in no way suggesting that Dallas is limiting itself to him as a first-rounder. There are going to be 16 or so guys with first-round grades; at this point, as many as nine of those guys could easily be projected to the Cowboys. So this exercise is about James, but in reality, won't be limited to James.)

So McClay's department, and anybody and everybody else inside The Star who can gather good intel, needs a read on how the draft will play out. And from Jerry's office on down, all those same employees need to continue to gauge the temperature of Thomas/Seahawks relationship, right up to and including draft night. (See: Richard, Kris.)

Unless your scouting department can truly semi-guarantee that he's Earl Jr., if Derwin James goes very early, he belongs to somebody else. So be it. (Sidebar: Even if your scouting department insists on that level of greatness, you have the same department's Mo Claiborne/Deion Sanders semi-guarantee rattling about in your head.) Then you turn to Seattle, but you turn to Thomas, too ... and the phones will be wildly busy here as Round 2 approaches because the Cowboys will want to be talking to the Seahawks, trying to move rapidly to a deal before pick No. 50 approaches -- but will also need permission from Seattle to get Thomas and agent David .... on another line, because Dallas isn't making this trade with the team until and unless it has a new contract with the player.

And if you don't believe that ... just envision Earl Thomas rolling into Frisco and then announcing that just as the plan was in Seattle, his holdout commences ... now!

Regarding Thomas, there will be a great deal of pressure on not only McClay's guys, but also Richard. His scouting report will be a gloriously positive one, and it'll mesh with Garrett's. The foundation of the Seattle defense matches that of Dallas', so Marinelli will be able to visualize the fit with ease.

But then maybe the Seahawks don't budge. Listen to Seattle coach Pete Carroll on all of this:

"He's a Seahawk. I don't know what everyones talking about ... He better be (at camp). He's on the roster. We're counting on him."

So maybe this all shrivels up. Maybe Dallas' offer isn't enough, or maybe the Seahawks make their own "We're-counting-on-you'' phone call to Earl and his agent and make nice. And maybe, at the same time, Marinelli notes that the existing kids at safety, Jeff Heath, Xavier Woods and Kavon Frazier, are so promising that he and Richard just supervised the shift of Byron Jones out of that position group. Earl Thomas as a mentor to that group? Sure, but even though the Dez Bryant goodbye creates ample room, do we need to listen to a request for $40 million guaranteed to a "mentor''? Can't the coaches be the "mentors''?

And just as the names Jeff Heath, Xavier Woods and Kavon Frazier are mentioned, so are the names Justin Reid of Stanford, Tarvarius Moore of Southern Miss and DeShon Elliott of Texas. Can they be "value picks'' in whatever round in a way that seems more wise that "giving up the farm'' for a move up to Derwin James or "giving up the farm'' to trade for Earl Thomas?

The debate won't be just "Dallas vs. Seattle.'' The debate will also be "Dallas vs. Dallas'' ... and Earl Thomas vs. Derwin James.