The Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks play today. Week 3 has arrived rather quickly.
Things are flying by this NFL season and everyone is looking to keep pace. Some teams are still looking for their first win, some just want to keep up their success. In the case of the Cowboys perhaps, they might still be looking for a player they really want.
Earl Thomas has been the name for the Cowboys ever since he marched to find Jason Garett last Christmas Eve. Dallas was heavily involved with trying to acquire him for Seattle over the offseason and even right up to the season beginning, but no dice was to be had.
Many have believed that today was a landmark day for this idea as the Cowboys and Seahawks play. If you were Seattle you might not want to have traded away a player of Thomas’ caliber to a defense that’s on the rise that was scheduled to show up for your home opener.
Perhaps it really is this simple and obvious. The Seahawks were on the opposite end of this sort of situation last year when they traded for Duane Brown right after playing him while a member of the Houston Texans. Could that happen again? The Cowboys reportedly hope so.
The Cowboys flew to Seattle ready to face the Seahawks and the player they have long coveted -- Earl Thomas. They tried to trade for the star safety before the season, offering a second-round draft pick to try to make it happen.
While the two sides have not spoken since before Thomas reported to the Seahawks to begin the season, there are several people inside the Cowboys organization who hope Sunday’s game will serve as the impetus to begin conversations again.
Things ramped up again on this subject when Earl Thomas mysteriously didn’t practice on Friday for “personal reasons” despite being in attendance. Are we finally at a point with all this where something happens? Is this truly the eleventh hour?
Reports are that Thomas is likely to play in this game.
Maybe we’ll find out after this game, which is a big deal of its own.
Update: 10:30am ET
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport provided some context on the situation this morning on NFL GameDay. According to him, Kris Richard is among the Cowboys contingency that wants talks for Thomas to continue.
The #Seahawks and the #Cowboys will meet today... and maybe talk about some things? pic.twitter.com/ZV1hOPxl7f
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 23, 2018
While this is obviously not surprising given that Richard coached Thomas in Seattle the confirmation of it is news. Considering Kris Richard’s growing influence (he called plays last week for the defense) perhaps that’s a bigger deal than it even sounds like it would be.
Update: 10:40am ET
ESPN has now gotten in on Sunday morning’s Earl Thomas action. According to them the Kansas City Chiefs are now in the running for the star safety’s services and, shocker here, the Cowboys chances of trading for Earl are quite long.
One league source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that a trade sending Thomas to Dallas is “a super long shot.” Seattle already has turned down a second-round draft pick from the Cowboys, and wanted more for Thomas.
Some sources around the league believed that the Seahawks did not want to trade Thomas until after they played the Cowboys in their home opener Sunday.
Kansas City is already committed long-term to safety Eric Berry, but perhaps they want to have their cake and eat it too. Can you imagine him and Thomas together in one secondary?
While that sounds ridiculous, it sounds even less likely than a deal to Dallas. If the Seahawks were reportedly unwilling to move Thomas until after they played Dallas, that hold-up exists to a larger degree with the Chiefs. Seattle hosts Kansas City in their penultimate game of the season. Imagine the playoff-bound Chiefs coming to their house with their pair of safeties as Seattle is on the brink. It’s not ideal.