Kansas City Chiefs: Chiefs should avoid trade for Earl Thomas

Earl Thomas Is Refusing To Practice And Aging

Again, Thomas failed to show up to training camp in an effort to land a new deal and has recently made news sitting out practices in an effort to ‘stay healthy.’ It’s hard to imagine a trade anywhere BUT Dallas would if Thomas were willing to report to the new team without a new deal.

If the Chiefs did somehow work a trade that would bring the safety to the midwest, they would need some level of assurance that Thomas would show up. There have been discussions and talk that Thomas wants out of Seattle on various KC radio shows and that’s simply not the case. If the Seahawks would pay Thomas what he wants, well, you wouldn’t be reading this article because this wouldn’t be a topic.

Earl Thomas is already on his second contract and is looking for a third before his value falls through the floor. If the Chiefs acquire Thomas, they would have to absorb the prorated portion of the at least 8.5 million of the Thomas salary (considering the likely scenario they are unable to get an extension done) on their 2018 salary cap.

The Chiefs don’t have that much cap space. Currently, overthecap.com list the Chiefs having $6.684 million under. Meaning simply to add him, the Chiefs would have to clear salary. Who’s salary are you clearing? Teams generally love to have a couple million in cap space in order to bring in free agents if and when injuries take down roster depth. The draft capital of acquiring Thomas combined with the loss of likely producing players releases makes the costs of acquiring the Seahawks safety even more expensive.