Report: Seahawks lowered trade price for Earl Thomas prior to broken leg

Earl Thomas’ Seattle Seahawks career likely came to a sad end on Sunday, when the future hall-of-fame safety fractured his leg defending what proved to be a game-tying touchdown pass from Arizona Cardinals QB Josh Rosen to Chad Williams. The aftermath that is being heavily talked about is Thomas’ subsequent middle finger that was seemingly aimed towards the Seahawks sideline.

Throughout this entire offseason and into the regular season, we’ve had to endure discussion over whether or not Seattle would trade Thomas, who had held out up until the season opener, hoping for a major contract extension that he obviously never received. The Dallas Cowboys were the primary team in the headlines in Earl Thomas trade talks, and the Kansas City Chiefs soon emerged as a potential suitor. Reports had the Seahawks demanding multiple second-round picks for Thomas prior to the injury, and now in a report that is totally moot at this point, it looks like Seattle had lowered its asking price and the Chiefs were making a real push to land ETIII.

Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport:

“The Seahawks from what I understand were actually moving toward trading Earl Thomas. This injury comes as bad news not just for the Seahawks, but the Kansas City Chiefs as well. We’ve known for sometime that the Cowboys were in the mix, that essentially ended before the season. The Kansas City Chiefs though had not stopped the pursuit.

“From what I’m told, the Seahawks wanted two second-round picks, actually lowered their price to one second-round pick,” he continued. “The Kansas City Chiefs were then in the process of freeing up some money, creating salary cap space to make room for Thomas’ $8.5 million salary. This is something, from what I understand, that likely would’ve happened and Earl Thomas would’ve been a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, he just needed more time. [...] As far as the other parts of this trade, the Chiefs have a lot of really good players doesn’t sound like an extension for Thomas would’ve been in the cards, but believes the Chiefs would’ve had a really good rental, and the Seahawks would’ve gotten a solid draft pick.”

In the end, Thomas obviously won’t be traded, his financial situation is drastically changed regardless of where he plays next year (if he does want to keep playing), and the Seahawks still don’t have a 2019 second-round pick as a result of the Duane Brown trade.