Pete Carroll confirms Earl Thomas not in attendance for voluntary portion of offseason

The Seattle Seahawks wrapped up their three day rookie minicamp on Sunday, and head coach Pete Carroll spoke to the media about his impressions of how things went. In addition, he was asked about All Pro free safety Earl Thomas and whether Thomas would be in attendance at any portion of the offseason program prior to the mandatory minicamp in June.

From the linked ESPN article in that tweet, this is what Pete had to say,

We’ll find out. We’ve got to communicate. Phase 2 doesn’t look like it’s suiting him right now, so we’ll see, we’ll see what’s happening. Phase 3 is around the corner for us, so we’ll see. We’ve got one more week of Phase 2. Earl had a fantastic offseason and I know he knows how to get in shape. Veterans sometimes look at those rules and they see ‘voluntary’ and they see it differently than the other guys, so we’ll see.

So, in short, Earl hasn’t been participating in offseason workouts, which has been widely reported and assumed, but this is the first official confirmation from the team of Thomas’ absence. So, what is Earl up to while he’s skipping the voluntary portion of offseason workouts? He’s enjoying himself with his family and celebrating his 29th birthday today.

Now, to address one piece of what Carroll said - specifically the part about Thomas knowing how to get in shape - based on a picture he posted to his Instagram account, he appears to be in pretty good shape.

And just in case you’re wondering where they are, here’s one that his wife posted which is tagged as being from Furanafushi Island in the Maldives.

So, Thomas is off on vacation enjoying time with his family, and that’s fantastic. Even though Seattle has a new defensive coordinator, we are all aware that the team is going to be using the same defense that it has used since Pete’s arrival, since the defense is Pete’s. With eight seasons of experience in Pete’s system, Earl is not going to be surprised by anything in the defense, and he’s obviously in shape. Thus, it’s simply a matter of whether he will be at minicamp and report to training camp on time.

In the meantime, hopefully Earl gets to enjoy the offseason and spend quality time with his family.