Earl Thomas to hold out until contract resolved

[Seymour]

If they don't think he's going to play happily on the team this year, why not just release him and roll over the cap space? What's the dead money for releasing him vs. trading him? If you save a few mil by releasing vs. trading then just cut him. If the difference is negligible, trade him for a sixth round pick.

That would make zero sense to now at this point surrender him to getting nothing. Keep him and wait for a team in need. There will be someone sooner or later in the season. It also would be admitting complete stupidity for not taking the 3rd we were rumored to have been offered pre draft.

https://www.bloggingtheboys.com/201...round-pick-for-earl-thomas-while-on-the-clock

[tweet]https://twitter.com/1053SS/status/990756374689787905[/tweet]

 

[lukerguy]

ET is a different cat. He's so emotional.

While I have no doubt he's irate (about the situation he's put himself in), I don't think that he has the self control to hold out an entire year, or even part of the year.

He loves football too much to sit out or retire...

I don't think anyone is going to give in to the Seahawks demands, so my prediction is that Earl at some point comes back and plays out the final year of the contract.

Nailed it! Great post.

If he's playing, he wouldn't give a damn and be like jogging

Earl is the guy who yelled at the other players for eating sunflower seeds while preparing for a game because they lacked focus. He's not going to report and be a detriment; I promise you that.

Also, if money is on his mind, what would get him the biggest contract? Continuing elite play, or showing that he's not trying? The quickest way to reduce his next contract is to put poor effort on his game tape.

 

[toffee]

ET is a different cat. He's so emotional.

While I have no doubt he's irate (about the situation he's put himself in), I don't think that he has the self control to hold out an entire year, or even part of the year.

He loves football too much to sit out or retire...

I don't think anyone is going to give in to the Seahawks demands, so my prediction is that Earl at some point comes back and plays out the final year of the contract.

Nailed it! Great post.

If he's playing, he wouldn't give a damn and be like jogging

Earl is the guy who yelled at the other players for eating sunflower seeds while preparing for a game because they lacked focus. He's not going to report and be a detriment; I promise you that.

Also, if money is on his mind, what would get him the biggest contract? Continuing elite play, or showing that he's not trying? The quickest way to reduce his next contract is to put poor effort on his game tape.

May be running to pimp himself to daddy Belicheat? he has been practicing in that sort of running. Got game tape of our Earl pimping to uncle Jerroh? Brother Davis?

 

[DJrmb]

Interesting concept here. With Earl being such a "different guy" and clearly pretty emotional why not play off that? Earl's already killed off most if not all the trade value he used to have so with that why not use that fact and come out and say, "Hey, we've talked to a few teams about Earl, but no one wants him. No one values Earl Thomas as a top safety anymore otherwise they'd make a reasonable offer for him".

I feel like if the team had the gull to put enough of that out there, Earl is the type that would come back and ball out just to prove everyone wrong. I know that's not how teams have traditionally done things but if Earl is going to play dirty using social media etc to try to force the Seahawk's hand why shouldn't they do the same? There's already people saying they don't think Earl can stay away from football long enough to make the full hold out. If the media is also being fed information that makes shows teams think Earl is washed up, or not valuable, would Earl really be able to just sit back and let his reputation take hit after hit? I don't think he could...

 

[Popeyejones]

Why sign a contract to play until 2019 but hold off playing until you get an extension? A contract is a contract.

If a contract was a contract teams would have to honor their contracts, but they don't, so a contract is not a contract.

If you want to argue that per the CBA for teams the dishonoring of contracts is baked into the contracts and everyone knows that, then per the CBA holding out is also baked into contracts, and everyone knows that too.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Management should of just taken the best offer prior to the draft. We could of really used a 3rd rd pick as part of the rebuild which earl is and does not want to be part of. He is not getting extended here and I really doubt he sits at home this season. Getting anything more than a 3rd or 4th is simply wishful thinking for a player who is about to start diminishing and injured a lot more.

Agreed. Sometimes you have to cut your losses and a 3rd would've been much better than the current unraveling mess.

JS had no problem immediately getting rid of Bennett for only a 5th and a practice squad caliber WR and refusing to match Sherman's prove it deal, but what was it that made him think that hanging onto Earl for no less than a 2nd was going to end well?

We fans put FAR more stock in using words like "distraction" or "mess."

Cliff Avril has said numerous times now on his new show with Jason Puckett on KJR that stuff like holdouts and contract disputes literally has a zero distraction effect on the rest of the team. They know it's a business and if their teammate isn't there, then it's next man up and everyone moves on.

So to keep bringing this up as a reason to not get value for Earl, or just take whatever lowball offer is out there just to get rid of him? Makes no sense to me.

Earl's an All Pro caliber safety in his prime, Pete and John have put a value on him (1st round or 2nd and later round)...............and they're not going to give him up for less than that. Period.

btw, we should all be supporting our FO finally growing some balls and taking a hardline approach to these players and trades, as opposed to what's been going on which is handing out insane contracts to vets for past performance and getting screwed in trade deals.

 

[NFSeahawks]

Basically me...

 

[KitsapGuy]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/GehlkenNFL/status/1021922516581769216[/tweet]

 

[KitsapGuy]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/bcondotta/status/1022196132825296896[/tweet]

 

[Seymour]

Shocking that anyone would twist words around to "build a story".

 

[edogg23]

What's irritating is that the Hawks should have been done with this months ago. Like naive fans, they didn't believe it could get caustic. This story should be old news and it's not. Stupid and naive, John. Everyone around the league knows Thomas' worth now, or lack there of. Should gave taken a 3rd, dummy.

Oh I think John and Pete FULLY expected this..............but their playing hardball and aren't going to part with one of the best safeties in his prime for a mid to late round pick.

Nor should we want them too, we've already gotten the short end of the stick on trade deals. Giving up Earl for a 3rd or 4th rounder would be terrible business.

Good. Play hardball, make Earl report in week 6, then if he plays well? Franchise his ass and hope teams see that he's now healthy and still productive and give us what we want.

A mid to late round pick is all we'll end up getting for him anyways at this point. The whole situation is toxic now. Should have unloaded him earlier like right after the Dallas incident. Putting a franchise tag on him accomplishes nothing. He doesnt want to be here. Let him go for what we can get out of him and spare the team the drama thats destroyed it the past 3 years.

I guess you can look at Duane Brown for trade hope. He held out for like 3 months and yet we traded a premium for him not even really thinking about the holdout.

 

[KiwiHawk]

Why sign a contract to play until 2019 but hold off playing until you get an extension? A contract is a contract.

If a contract was a contract teams would have to honor their contracts, but they don't, so a contract is not a contract.

If you want to argue that per the CBA for teams the dishonoring of contracts is baked into the contracts and everyone knows that, then per the CBA holding out is also baked into contracts, and everyone knows that too.

Teams don't dishonour contracts. They pay every cent the player is entitled to under the terms of the agreement. If $20 million is guaranteed then the player gets $20 million even if he doesn't take the field.

Earl Thomas missed 7 games over the past 2 seasons and got paid for them. Seattle is fulfilling its contractual obligations to Thomas.

Kam Chancellor isn't playing this year. He's still getting paid. Seattle is fulfilling its contractual obligations to Chancellor.

This is a multi-billion dollar industry in which billionaires employ millionaires. If there was a problem with one side or the other not fulfilling a contract, I guarantee you they can afford enough lawyers to pres the lawsuit. Even if a player is stupid with his money, the players' union will file suit on his behalf.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

Looks like one former Seahawk on the Raiders roster would rather spend money elsewhere than aquire Earl.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BIrvin_WVU11/status/1021832585746497536[/tweet]

https://twitter.com/BIrvin_WVU11/status ... 5746497536

Smart. If you go back and look at all of Earl's picks, about 2/3rds of them are either tipped balls or errant throws. What's a large portion of reasoning for that?

Pass rush. You pay that waaaaay before you pay a deep 3rd safety.

Earl gives pass rushers time to get home by discouraging throws, too.

 

[KiwiHawk]

Earl gives pass rushers time to get home by discouraging throws, too.

Yeah I think while people were kowtowing to Sherman for shutting down 1/3 of the field in his prime, what was possibly more impressive is that ET covered the other 2/3.

 

[Cyrus12]

I for one dont care about holdouts it happens every year. Mostly because vets hate training camp. Very few holdouts fo into the reg season. I doubt Earl's holdout will go that far either. In earls case it's not about a holdout for more money that irked me. It's the way he has been conducting himself from the fiasco in Dallas to his Twitter ramblings. He has shown zero class and has shown zero of his supposed leadership. He flat out wants out and imo he is a detrimant to this team regardless of the year he may or may not have. He needs to be sold to the highest bidder and let the team continue the rebuild which he wants no part of...at his point of his career I get it. That being said he should of kept his mouth shut and went out with class. Imo he has destroyed his image here. Too bad....

 

[Mad Dog]

A lot of these posts sound like the posts from Chancellor's holdout:
"Trade him"
"Won't ever play another down for the Seahawks"
"FO is totally bungling this"

In the end it will likely go the same as the Chancellor holdout. ET will eventually show up when the losses mount too high. FO will hold their ground and waive fines as an olive branch. Team will either re-negotiate or franchise ET at end of season if they think he has a lot left in the tank.

In the meantime we can all see what the young guys can do. Maybe Hill and Thompson are really good safeties after all?

 

[Jimjones0384]

A lot of these posts sound like the posts from Chancellor's holdout:
"Trade him"
"Won't ever play another down for the Seahawks"
"FO is totally bungling this"

In the end it will likely go the same as the Chancellor holdout. ET will eventually show up when the losses mount too high. FO will hold their ground and waive fines as an olive branch. Team will either re-negotiate or franchise ET at end of season if they think he has a lot left in the tank.

In the meantime we can all see what the young guys can do. Maybe Hill and Thompson are really good safeties after all?

I think you nailed it.

 

[Sports Hernia]

A lot of these posts sound like the posts from Chancellor's holdout:
"Trade him"
"Won't ever play another down for the Seahawks"
"FO is totally bungling this"

In the end it will likely go the same as the Chancellor holdout. ET will eventually show up when the losses mount too high. FO will hold their ground and waive fines as an olive branch. Team will either re-negotiate or franchise ET at end of season if they think he has a lot left in the tank.

In the meantime we can all see what the young guys can do. Maybe Hill and Thompson are really good safeties after all?

Excellent points! :2thumbs:

 

[toffee]

Seat Earl, then trade him for a first round pick to some contending team that just lost a FS would be my choice under the circumstances. I am have sooooo much fun watching Earl self destructing his market value, and he is still doubling down on his effort to hurt himself.

If only Earl's on field destruction is as potent as his off field ability to seppuku.

 

[sc85sis]

A lot of these posts sound like the posts from Chancellor's holdout:
"Trade him"
"Won't ever play another down for the Seahawks"
"FO is totally bungling this"

In the end it will likely go the same as the Chancellor holdout. ET will eventually show up when the losses mount too high. FO will hold their ground and waive fines as an olive branch. Team will either re-negotiate or franchise ET at end of season if they think he has a lot left in the tank.

In the meantime we can all see what the young guys can do. Maybe Hill and Thompson are really good safeties after all?

Probably, though I don’t recall Kam ever dissing the team the way Earl has been doing in the last several months. His holdout is disappointing, but I could accept the reasoning if he simply said it was a business decision.

Instead he’s making snarky Twitter and Instagram posts and telling other teams to come get him.

Really not cool, or all that smart.