Bob Condotta
The Seattle Times
File this in the “you wouldn’t have expected anything else” folder.
A report from the NFL Network on Friday stated the league investigated whether the Dallas Cowboys were guilty of tampering in connection with Seahawks free safety Earl Thomas and concluded that the Cowboys were not.
According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Cowboys “cooperated fully and the league found no wrongdoing.”
Rapoport further stated “the inquiry into the tampering situation stemmed from comments Dallas coaches might or might not have made to Thomas before the Cowboys-Seahawks game in Week 3.”
Recall that was the game in which Thomas had two interceptions, bowing in front of the Dallas sideline after the second one, which helped clinch a 24-13 Seattle win.
Afterward, Thomas said he considered the idea that the game could have been his last as a Seahawk and then made the comment that spurred the inquiry: “Of course. I heard chatter, people were coming up to me and saying the trade might happen. Even pregame, a couple of the Cowboys coaches — I don’t know if they were trying to play psychological games — but they were like, ‘You ready for the trade tomorrow? But at the end of the day, I had a great time with the guys I’ve been practicing with — well, not practicing with, but the guys that I’ve been around. It was just fun out there.”
Thomas was not traded, playing the following week with Seattle at Arizona, then suffering a season-ending broken leg injury in what was likely his last game as a Seahawk.
Thomas, who made six Pro Bowls with Seattle after being a first-round pick in 2010, can be an unrestricted free agent in March and there is little thought he will remain with Seattle and will instead sign elsewhere — he did not do his rehab in Seattle or hang around the team after his injury.
Coach Pete Carroll, in a comment that appeared designed mostly at not closing the door on anything just in case, said of Thomas’ future when asked in January: “We’ll see what happens. Yeah, Earl is a great player. I don’t know what that means for his contract and all that stuff, but it’s one of the issues (in the offseason) and we’ve got a bunch of them.”
That Thomas will be a free agent next month means no trade can happen now, anyway.
It was also Thomas who — publicly, anyway — gave birth to rumors of a possible move to Dallas following a 2017 game there when he memorably told Cowboys coach Jason Garrett to “come get me” when the Seahawks “kick me to the curb.”
Thomas is from Orange, Texas, and has often stated how he was a fan of the Cowboys growing up.
Thomas’ original comment to Garrett came late in a 2017 season in which he made it increasingly clear he was frustrated with what he saw as Seattle’s reluctance to give him a new, long-term contract. He then held out all of training camp in 2018 as he entered the final year of a four-year, $40 million contract before returning the week of the first game at Denver.
How interested the Cowboys will be in Thomas once he becomes a free agent remains to be seen, but the revelation that the league found no tampering removes at least one possible complication, assuming it would have been one in the first place.
Dallas will have money to play with in free agency, listed with an effective cap space for 2019 of just over $49 million by OvertheCap.com.
But Dallas also has some free agents of its own it needs to deal with, including defensive end Demarcus Lawrence, as well as possibly giving an extension to quarterback Dak Prescott.
One recent overview of Dallas’ free agent needs, though, made a case for Thomas being a target of the Cowboys stating: “Looking at the secondary, safety has been a need for a while now. This is probably where the Cowboys will look in free agency with the names of Landon Collins, Earl Thomas, Tyrann Mathieu, and Lamarcus Joyner are on everyone’s radar. Who they sign will be debated, but with this year’s safety class, odds favor a free agent rather than a drafted player.”
Another lure of Dallas for Thomas is the presence of Kris Richard, who was on the Seattle defensive staff from 2010-17 before becoming the passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach for the Cowboys in 2018.
