To the surprise of no one, Seattle Seahawks safety Earl Thomas was one of several high-profile stars not in attendance for the start of team OTAs on Monday as his ongoing contract situation continues.
It’s highly unlikely that Thomas, who has been absent for the entirety of the team’s voluntary offseason program to date, will show up until he gets his new deal. But by the looks of things, it might be a while until that happens — if it ever does.
According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, Thomas and the Seahawks have still not engaged in negotiations for a new contract, and there don’t appear to be any scheduled talks between his camp and the team in the near future.
As Bobby Wagner alluded to on @710ESPNSeattle, Earl Thomas remains away from the team as #Seahawks OTAs begin. It's voluntary and they'd planned as if he might skip it. Under contract for $8.5M in 2018. My understanding is there have been no negotiations and none on horizon.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 21, 2018
It’s certainly a somewhat concerning fact that after all the time that's passed this offseason, the two camps don’t seem to have made any progress with regard to getting a deal done. There doesn’t even seem to be much sense of urgency to at least sit down at the negotiating table.
With mandatory camp now less than a month away, Thomas’ chances of finally reporting to the team by then don’t look too great given the apparent lack of communication between the two sides.
There’s still time for Thomas’ camp and the Seahawks to get together and hash things out sometime before training camp, which starts in July. But the longer this saga plays out with so little progress, the greater the possibility that Thomas’ days in Seattle may be numbered.
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