On September 5th, 2018, ESPN’s Josina Anderson broke the news on her Twitter account that Earl Thomas would be ending his months-long holdout and would report to the Seahawks.
Breaking: S @Earl_Thomas just told me he plans to report to the #Seahawks today.
— IG: JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) September 5, 2018
The news ended a bitter stalemate between the All-Pro safety and the only professional team Earl has ever played for. Seeking a trade or contract extension, the 29-year old Thomas had held out throughout the entirety of the offseason, even though he was scheduled to earn $8 million guaranteed in 2018. His training camp absence had already amounted to $1.5 million in fines with an additional expected $500,000 fine each week of the regular season missed.
With the amount of money he stood to lose, it was no wonder Earl decided to end his holdout. He had little to gain, and Seattle held all the leverage. The Seahawks were never going to extend Thomas if he wasn’t going to show up and honor his contract. No teams were willing to offer a sweet enough deal in a trade, at least until this morning. Coincidentally (or not), just minutes prior to the post from Josina, Adam Schefter tweeted out that the Dallas Cowboys were now offering a second-round pick for Thomas.
Within the past week, Dallas upped its offer to the Seahawks for Pro Bowl safety Earl Thomas to a second-round pick, per sources. Seattle wasn’t interested; it wants more.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 5, 2018
Seattle reportedly declined the offer, wanting more. Did the Seahawks decline the trade, knowing Earl was soon to report, thereby upping the trade value for the safety? Or was the timing just purely coincidental? I guess we will find out in the days to follow. One thing for sure however, is that Thomas seems none-to-pleased to be playing under his current contract.
In an Instagram post that went up around the same time as the news of his return to the Seahawks broke, Earl made it clear that he has felt disrespected throughout this entire ordeal. Who he feels disrespected by is yet another question in this strange ordeal.
Fortunately, this is good news for Seahawks fans. If Thomas wants that big new contract, he now has no other choice but to ball out and earn it, whether that’s with Seattle or by impressing another team enough to trade for him.
Either way, the Seahawks are now in a win-win situation.
