Earl Thomas plans to sell Seattle home, is 'willing' to play for Raiders along with Cowboys

Seahawks' Earl Thomas and K.J Wright keep Dallas Cowboys' Dak Prescott out of the end zone in the fourth quarter Sunday, Dec. 24, 2017 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Seahawks won, 21-12. (Dean Rutz/Seattle Times/TNS)

by TNS
| July 26, 2018 1:00 AM

With the beginning of Seahawks’ training camp, the Earl Thomas rumor mill is predictably beginning to pick up steam.

Most eye-catching was a report out of Dallas from NBC Sports Radio host Newy Scruggs stating that Thomas “plans” to sell his home in Seattle and that he recently told Oakland Raiders’ owner to “come get him” — the same phrase Thomas used during his infamous encounter with Cowboys’ coach Jason Garrett last December.

Scruggs also wrote: “I’m told Earl Thomas will not report to the ?@Seahawks. He is done with Seattle. Plans to sell his house in Seattle. He will ONLY report if he gets a new deal.”

Thomas might want to play for Oakland but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Raiders are interested in him. It’s not that any team wouldn’t want Thomas if they could make it work, but at the moment this isn’t a rumor of trade talks, just a note that Thomas would be fine if Oakland somehow also got involved.

Oakland has just $2.2 million in cap room for 2018, so the Raiders would have to do some finagling to add Thomas and his $10.4 million cap hit for 2018. But the Raiders also have more than $114 million in cap space for 2019 so they could do some maneuvering to make it work should it be necessary.

But for now, Thomas remains the property of the Seahawks, even if apparently increasingly begrudgingly.

Thomas wrote via Twitter in June that he did not plan to take part in any activities with the Seahawks until his contract situation was settled.

“I want to remain a Seahawk for the rest of my career but I also believe that based on my production over the last eight years that I’ve earned the right to have this taken care of as soon as possible,” Thomas wrote in June. “I want to have certainty in regards to the upcoming years of my career.”

With training camp beginning on Thursday, Thomas’ contract situation remains the same: He has one year left with a base salary of $8.5 million, with no indication there have been any substantive contract talks between Thomas and the Seahawks.

Thomas has not said anything publicly since his Twitter announcement in June other than a few other social media posts, specifically a message on Instagram last week in which he wrote: “Always been the underdog ain’t nothing new. Extend ... if you don’t want me let’s make a trade happen I understand it’s a bizz.”

One complication in a trade is that any team acquiring Thomas would likely want an assurance it could get him under contract beyond the 2018 season, so Thomas — or someone close to him — indicating he’d be willing to play for other teams might ease the trade process.

There’s no reason to think the Seahawks have talked only to Dallas, but the Cowboys appear to have been the most interested.