Earl Thomas not going to give the Cowboys a hometown discount

Even after famously running up to Jason Garrett after a game, free agent safety Earl Thomas is not going to take a pay cut to play for his hometown Cowboys.

It seems like a foregone conclusion that Earl Thomas will not be returning to the Seattle Seahawks.

The last time we saw Thomas in uniform, he was flipping off his own team’s sideline. He held out all of last offseason and came back just in time for the season opener against the Denver Broncos in 2018.

Thomas wasn’t about to miss out on any game checks, but he was only able to play in four games because he suffered a fractured leg. Yikes.

The exact reason why Thomas was holding out for more money came to fruition, and he let the Seahawks know about it in a very public way. But even though Thomas turned out to be right to hold out for more money, he has had one foot out the door for quite some time in Seattle.

In December 2017, Thomas made a point to track down Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett with the cameras rolling, and told him to ‘come get me’ in the 2018 offseason. That would have required a trade and the Cowboys were unable to pull anything off, but the assumption has been that Thomas wanted the Cowboys bad enough that he might be willing to take a bit of a hometown discount.

Not so much, apparently.

Though the Cowboys and Thomas share a mutual interest, Clarence Hill says that Thomas has every intention of becoming the highest paid safety in the NFL whether the Cowboys are the ones willing to pay him or not.

The highest paid safety in the NFL right now is Kansas City’s Eric Berry, who is making $13 million per year. The Seahawks were paying Thomas $10 million per year and Kam Chancellor $12 million per year.

You can maybe understand a little bit of why this was personal for him when his own teammate was making more than he was.

Thomas is a great player, but he’s a great player who is 30 and coming off of a major injury. For some team to take a shot on him for that amount of money is going to require a little bit of delusion and a lot of faith.

No one knows Thomas’ medical history like the Seahawks, and they’re not going to be the team paying him on a huge contract. If Dallas ends up being the team to pay Thomas, good on them. They have a quarterback still on a rookie contract for another year, but they have to pay DeMarcus Lawrence this offseason as well as some other key in-house free agents.

They’re also giving Jason Witten some decent money to come out of retirement.

Adding Earl Thomas to an already tough defense would be a great move for the Cowboys, but it will come with a massive price tag.