Earl Thomas Has Chosen to Call the Seattle Seahawks’ Bluff

The Seattle Seahawks have already begun the purge of older stars on their roster. Michael Bennett is gone. Richard Sherman is gone. Could Earl Thomas be next?

The All-Pro safety has been surrounded by rumors for months. Experts aren’t sure what his future holds. His contract is set to expire next offseason, so the Seahawks are left with a decision to make. The obvious choice is to re-sign him to an extension. However, there’s also been heavy rumors about the team possibly trading elsewhere to places like Dallas.

GM John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll haven’t exactly been strong in their attempts to denounce such rumors. One can imagine the level of uncertainty this puts on Thomas’ psyche. Players by their nature love it when they feel secure in their positions. This is a cutthroat business and job security is hard to come by. Seattle is making Thomas feel threatened about his future.

It seems the 28-year old doesn’t care for that. So he went on the offensive. Thomas put up a post on Instagram that declared he would not attend any further team activities until the situation with his contract was resolved, one way or another.

Thomas seems prepared to dare Seahawks to follow up on the threat

It’s not uncommon for star veteran players to extend their holdouts towards training camp. However, this is different. None of them have been as public in their feelings as Thomas. There’s no reason to doubt his words but it’s also a brilliant tactic from a public relations tacts. By declaring his desire to stay in Seattle, he’s basically put the Seahawks on the spot. Either get something done with the contract or make that trade.

Seattle can’t let the holdout drag on. It’s only going to provide an unwanted distraction for their team and in a season where they can’t afford any. Thomas is now their best defender. He knows he’s their best defender. Nobody can fault him for using that leverage to his advantage. The Seahawks could’ve avoided the problem if they’d just dealt with the contract right away this offseason. Sometimes that’s what happens when dragging the feet.

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Thomas has made plenty of money already. He seems ready to dig in his heels if he went public with it like this. The ball is in Seattle’s court and the shot clock is winding down. There aren’t many ways they come out of this looking good.