It’s easy to connect the dots and say, as many do, that Earl Thomas is under contract and thus has an obligation to be at all mandatory Seahawks events.
But the three-time All-Pro safety has missed every team event since Seattle last played an NFL game seven months ago, and there is speculation he won’t be around when training camp opens July 26. Thomas is seeking a new contract beyond his deal that ends after the 2018 season.
On Monday, Bobby Wagner said he doesn’t blame Thomas for skipping out on the Seahawks so far.
Seattle’s All-Pro linebacker was on KJR-AM radio as a guest of new late-morning co-host and former teammate Cliff Avril, who suffered a career-ending neck injury in October.
“You’ve got to do what’s right for you,” Wagner told KJR. “Because at the end of the day, whenever you are done, they don’t care about you. You’ve got to get what you’ve got to get while you can. Because as soon as you can’t play…”
“As soon as you get hurt,” Avril interjected.
“Yeah,” Wagner responded. “As soon as you can’t play and they don’t want you no more, it’s over. So you’ve got to make the best of your opportunity.”
This could be the last chance for Thomas, 29, to get top-of-the-league money — i.e., tens of millions of dollars guaranteed.
Thomas turns 30 five months after the 2018 season ends. Any new contract he’ll be even remotely interested in signing, from the Seahawks or anyone else, is likely to be at least three years. That is so the team can prorate the bonus money across multiple years, making the sum more friendly to its salary cap.
Such a deal would take Thomas to his 33rd birthday. No matter how well he continues to play between now and then, he’s not likely to get $40 million guaranteed. That’s the deal his 2010 draft classmate and fellow safety Eric Berry got from Kansas City last year.
Even so, Wagner and Avril agreed Thomas better make his stand now, training camp be darned.
“I think — you know, as a former player, or whatever — I think that’s the right approach,” Avril said. “For us, we understand it’s a business. We understand, obviously, we want Earl out there. He’s one of the best safeties in the league. Obviously, you need him in the locker room.
“But at the same time, as a friend, as a person that understands the business, you have to capitalize as many times as possible. … Once you get hurt, once your play goes down, all these different things, the team has full (leverage). They can let you go, and you don’t see the rest of that money.”
Last month, on the first of the three days of mandatory minicamp Thomas skipped at the risk of an $84,000 team fine, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was asked if he expected Thomas to be with the team for the season opener Sept. 9 at Denver.
“We’ll see,” the coach said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Carroll also said on June 12 he last talked to Thomas “a couple weeks ago.” That was before Thomas decreed with an online letter in early June he would remain away from “any team activities until my contract situation is resolved.”
Wagner said he and Thomas are cool with each other, and have been for months. That’s after Thomas said Wagner should not have played injured and noticeably diminished in Seattle’s decisive home loss to the Rams in December that allowed Los Angeles to end the Seahawks’ reign of the NFC West. Wagner fired back at Thomas on Twitter. Wagner said he regularly trades text messages with Thomas, and that the December spat was nothing more than two competitors venting.
Wagner, 28, and quarterback Russell Wilson clearly have become the pillars of the transitioning Seahawks. In a span of four days in the summer of 2015, the Seahawks gave Wagner and Wilson a combined $130.6 million in contract extensions. Their deals end after 2019.
Wagner was asked by KJR co-host Jason Puckett on Monday if he thinks Thomas will be back with the team for the start of training camp.
“I mean, I don’t know. It’s up to him and management to figure that out,” Wagner said. “You don’t want to get into a person’s contract. …. I hope he comes. But I’m not necessarily focused on that, because I understand both sides. I understand wanting him here. And I understand the business aspect, which is not good for players. Like, we have contracts that don’t necessarily favor us all the time.
“So you have to do what’s right for you.”
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