Earl Thomas ended up landing a massive payday from the Ravens, but he was apparently disappointed with the offers he was getting. We heard that Thomas nearly signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs before Baltimore came through, and that the Texans were interested at one point, but Thomas pulled back the curtain on the whole process in a recent interview with Dan Pompei of The Athletic.
Thomas was coming off a season-ending leg injury when he entered free agency this past March, and three other safeties got signed before he did. “I thought I’d come off the board first,” Thomas said. “I thought I’d be the highest-paid safety. … It made me kind of reevaluate. You give your all for the game, and they still devalue you. I got hurt going full speed for my team.”
Thomas even revealed that he personally called Texans head coach Bill O’Brien at the urging of quarterback Deshaun Watson. “He was at the rodeo at the time,” Thomas said. “Our conversation was not what I thought it was going to be. It was him not believing I still wanted to play football.”
He also talked about his decision to sign with Baltimore, saying that he didn’t speak to a single member of the coaching staff or go to visit the facility. “You know what that means?” he said. “It was a big enough offer. The money was really good, bro. They really saw my value. And then I started to think about the greats that played before me like Ray (Lewis) and Ed (Reed). I definitely wanted to bring that type of leadership and playmaking ability to the team.”
Thomas said he had agreed a one-year deal worth around $12MM with Kansas City before Ravens GM Eric DeCosta placed a last-minute call to his agent. Thomas ended up getting $55MM over four-years with $32MM guaranteed, so it’d be hard to say it didn’t work out in the end. That being said, he didn’t achieve his goal of becoming the league’s highest-paid safety. Tyrann Mathieu and Landon Collins received slightly higher average salaries from the Chiefs and Redskins respectively.
I’m happy for him. That quote in the second paragraph got me. Guys spend their whole lives killing themselves for the game and get thrown away for one reason or another. Good on you for playing hard and reaping the rewards.
Never, ever forget it’s a business. Period. Dot. Sentence.
Fair or not it sounds like he was really naive
He was a force with Seattle. He isn’t the same guy since the injury.
Not sure what games you are watching but Earl is still being Earl back there. Ravens secondary really coming together as a unit after Peters arrived and Jimmy Smith got healthy. Numbers back it up too so it’s not just conjecture
Just another of the many “Me first” guys around the league. The Chiefs incidentally, beat the Ravens in week 3 after taking a pass on Thomas and have a little extra cash to spend on other players because of that decision.
I suppose when you go in for a job opening you don’t want to get paid as much as you think you are worth. If it is raise time do you not want as big a raise as you can? It is the same for these guys. This is their job they are just on a different level than we ever will be. You can’t fault a guy for wanting as much as he can get. He is far from a me first guy. He is still loved in Seattle and hopefully like Sherman will sign a one day contract and retire Seahawk. They need to be in the ring of honor. It is too bad the SB ended like it did. Tore the team apart.
I certainly don’t fault a guy for wanting as much as he can get…heck! I’d like to be seduced by Halle Berry. The reality is that the person buying services is looking to pay as little as possible at the same time. It’s surprising how many NFL players just don’t get how expendable they are.
lmao it’s a job dude
Earl, you had a season ending injury to your leg. Why would you expect other teams to offer you a bunch of guaranteed money not knowing if you could still play? Be thankful that 1 team was silly enough.