S Earl Thomas announces hold-out in final year of contract, won't attend mandatory OTA's

[Broncofan]

Not surprising, but this rarely ends well for the player.  The team owns all the cards here - Thomas' only real play is that he can hold out for 8 games or less,  then collect only half of his season's salary, and still have the season count as his final one with SEA service-time wise (what HOU T Duane Brown did last year).    Thomas will also lose $ for missing mandatory OTA's and practice, unlike guys who are refusing to report after getting signed to a franchise tag by the team.    That could have cost Brown up to 1.5M last year (no idea if HOU enforced that or not).    Brown gambled that bad T play would force HOU to act sooner, and that's the thinking Thomas has here.   It's just the only leverage players have, so it works better on legit playoff contenders, or a team that desperately wants to keep the player.   I don't know if that applies here, though.

Now if this is a way to engineer a trade a year early because Thomas doesn't think SEA can contend, I guess it could work.   It's hard to see an extension coming unless SEA really badly wants to keep him back - any extension into the 30's is always iffy at the top of market rates.   Seems more likely a trade is coming, or Thomas backs down and reports later on.   We'll see.

[Danger]

RIP Seattle Russell Wilson & Friends

[JaguarCrazy2832]

12 minutes ago, Danger said:

RIP Seattle Russell Wilson & Friends

I thought we said that after they didnt draft an OL

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

Earl is a fine safety, but he has no leverage here. Safety market is trash and he still has a year left with Seattle not having a lot of wiggle room.

[Forge]

Such a bizarre move when the safety market has been so bad

[showtime]

Thomas said he was going to do this very thing months ago.  Everyone knew this would happen.  Hopefully the two can get a new deal done.

[Broncofan]

2 minutes ago, Forge said:

Such a bizarre move when the safety market has been so bad

I think that’s part of the motivation.   An extension with a new team pre-trade or with SEA might actually beat what he gets on the open market next year.   He’s still an elite S but he’s also going to 30 in 2019.  

Problem is he has such little leverage.   IMO he would have been better off privately giving SEA a deadline to get an extension done or he hits the FA market next year.  That wouldn’t destroy his trade value like this move did.   Bad advice from his agent (unless he ignored it lol either way bad decision). 

[Heimdallr]

Could a player just show up to everything (so they don't get fined, etc), but just give 10% effort and walk through everything?

[showtime]

2 minutes ago, Heimdallr said:

Could a player just show up to everything (so they don't get fined, etc), but just give 10% effort and walk through everything?

Don't think so.  Either you completely sit out or you go all the way.  I don't think teammates or people within the organization would respect a guy having a half-arse approach out there.  Also, there's the media attention.  If Thomas shows up to camp, then there's no story and people perceive things to be okay.

[Leoric]

10 minutes ago, Heimdallr said:

Could a player just show up to everything (so they don't get fined, etc), but just give 10% effort and walk through everything?

I would cite Randy “Alligators Arms” Moss during his staybin Oakland. You could do it, but it destroys your value. 

[bucsfan333]

1 hour ago, Boltstrikes said:

I would cite Randy “Alligators Arms” Moss during his staybin Oakland. You could do it, but it destroys your value. 

But not your HoF chances.

[Shanedorf]

3 hours ago, Heimdallr said:

Could a player just show up to everything (so they don't get fined, etc), but just give 10% effort and walk through everything?

 

Seahawks have been shopping Thomas for awhile now, so they know what he's worth on the open market and who is most interested. Earl is basically throwing down the gauntlet in telling the fan base: I want to be here. I want to retire here.

That means if it doesn't work out, its on the front office. He's just clarifying his position through the media. And then the front office will clarify theirs.

I am guessing he gets traded in the next two weeks 

[Thomas5737]

13 minutes ago, Shanedorf said:

Seahawks have been shopping Thomas for awhile now, so they know what he's worth on the open market and who is most interested. Earl is basically throwing down the gauntlet in telling the fan base: I want to be here. I want to retire here.

Well then I'd guess he'd give the team a discount and we wouldnb't be here. My guess is he hopes to get a deal done as a 29 year old safety instead of a deal as a 30 year old safety which just decreases his value.

[MonserinNC]

I have no clue how this could end well.....pretty much we know that Seattle is over. But who is paying for safeties these days?? Like is the goal really just to go to the Cowboys??

[TheKillerNacho]

1 hour ago, Shanedorf said:

 

Seahawks have been shopping Thomas for awhile now, so they know what he's worth on the open market and who is most interested. Earl is basically throwing down the gauntlet in telling the fan base: I want to be here. I want to retire here.

That means if it doesn't work out, its on the front office. He's just clarifying his position through the media. And then the front office will clarify theirs.

I am guessing he gets traded in the next two weeks 

Lynch was talking about showing up to talk to the media though, that's a little different than giving 10% as a player.