Seahawks Eyeing First-Round Pick For Earl Thomas?

Earl Thomas is one of the most accomplished safeties of his era but is entering his ninth season and has voiced concerns about an uncertain future in Seattle. And the Seahawks are open to negotiations.

While Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports wrote the team could possibly land multiple Day 2 picks for the soon-to-be 29-year-old safety, Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times reports the Seahawks would try to land a first-round pick plus an additional mid-round selection in Thomas talks.

Seattle trading arguably its best player and a future Hall of Fame candidate would signal a rebuild, at least to some degree, would be commencing. The team is shopping Michael Bennett as well, and the futures of Super Bowl cornerstones Kam Chancellor and Cliff Avril are in doubt. Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright are essentially the only members of that defensive nucleus whose names have not been associated with uncertainty thus far this offseason.

Thomas is seeking a new contract, one that won’t be cheap. Eric Berry‘s $13MM-AAV deal could be in sight for the league’s former highest-paid safety. The former Texas Longhorn is on the Seahawks’ books at $10.4MM this season.

No active safety has more than Thomas’ three first-team All-Pro distinctions, and with his age-30 season not set to commence until 2019, he stands to have plenty more good years left. He backed off the possibly not-so-serious retirement talk that occurred while he was out after breaking his leg in 2016 and started 14 games last season.

Condotta lists the Texans, Raiders and Steelers as some possible suitors. Oakland GM Reggie McKenzie is a close friend of John Schneider, and the Raiders need safety help alongside Karl Joseph after Reggie Nelson‘s contract expired. They don’t have a ton of salary cap space and may be eyeing top-market corner Trumaine Johnson with much of it. The Steelers are in dire need of coverage help and may be ready to jettison their most experienced safety, Mike Mitchell, to create cap space. But the Le’Veon Bell situation and a lack of cap space clouds Pittsburgh’s spending outlook. The Texans have a need at safety, more cap space than both teams, and they made a deal with the Seahawks in October.

Thomas, though, connected himself to the Cowboys after the Seahawks’ December in win Dallas. He’d surely welcome a trip to his home state, but the Cowboys don’t have a friendly cap situation either. They are set to use their franchise tag on Demarcus Lawrence, which would be worth $16.2MM of their space. OverTheCap has Dallas as holding $17.4MM in space going into the weekend.

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