Seahawks pivot Earl Thomas’ latest practice absence to ‘always’ rest day. But it’s not ‘always’

Bobby Wagner has a fundamental, direct reason why he doesn’t mind Earl Thomas deciding when he will practice.

“He’s a baller.”

Wagner just stated precisely why the Seahawks are moving on with the fellow All-Pro starting again on Sunday at Arizona—whether Thomas feels like practicing this week, or not.

He didn’t practice on Wednesday.

Thomas missed practice for the third time in four work days dating to the week-two loss at Chicago Sept. 17. Friday it was his way of continuing to show his anger and what he feels is the Seahawks’ disrespect in not giving him the rich contract extension he wants or, short of that, trading him by now.

The NFL’s trading deadline is Oct. 30.

Coach Pete Carroll explained before Wednesday’s practice this was the normal veteran rest day for the 29-year-old Thomas, Seattle’s longest-tenured player.

“This is the day that Earl always gets a break,” Carroll said.

Execpt it’s not. At least it hasn’t been for the last three seasons.

It’s now Carroll’s and the Seahawks’ way of moving past last week’s drama of Thomas refusing to practice.

Before Wednesday’s absence, Thomas had been on the Seahawks’ practice participation report listed as “out, NIR (not injury related)“ three times in the last three seasons. Those were: the Thursday before the Monday night game at Chicago two weeks ago, the Thursday before the week 10 game against Philadelphia and the Thursday before the week four game of 2016 at the New York Jets.

So now it’s two Wedesdays in a row the 29-year-old Thomas has been out, NIR. It’s a new Seahawks normal.

Carroll was asked if he’s confident Thomas will maintain his level of play on game days, including Sunday when Seattle (1-2) plays its first NFC West game this season at Arizona (0-3), despite his anger and desire to either be paid or somewhere else right now.

“Let me say this: I’m really confident that Earl is ready to play really good football, and he has done nothing but that,” Carroll said. “We’ve worked together for a long time and we’ve worked through things and we’ve talked our way through where we are right now. I think the process is going to go really good. He feels great coming out of that game.

“We’ll do what we do during the weekend in preparation. I’m hoping he can keep rolling. He’s on fire right now. And we want to keep it going.”

Sunday, Carroll said he hadn’t yet talked to Thomas about him blowing off Friday’s practice before the win Sunday over Dallas.

Carroll said Wednesday he’s talked to Thomas since then about it.

“Of course we’ve talked about it. Yeah,” the coach said. “We’ve done the whole conversation. We’ve been through it. We’re very clear. I might have demonstrated to you that I was kind of confident that we would be OK about working through this because I felt like we would be, and I think we are.

“I’m really looking forward to another week of getting ready to play ball. Everything’s taking place and we’re not really sharing it with you. But it’s going fine.”

What became clear talking to Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. Wednesday is that the Seahawks are pivoting Thomas’ practice absences to being veteran rest days. All of them. So unless Carroll reveals Thomas skipped a practice the team listed him as missing for NIR again, as he did Friday, it will be difficult if not impossible to know whether the team granted Thomas a rest day--or if NIR really means “not interested, really” because Thomas simply refused to work.

That’s not a great precedent to set for younger players, or any other Seahawks player, for that matter.

Or is it?

The captain of the Seahawks’ defense sounds fine with it.

“I think he’s a baller. That’s what he does,” Wagner said of Thomas.

“I think at the end of the day it’s going to be a bunch of stuff that happens during the week. And the great ones are able to put that aside and come out, and play, whether it’d be sick, whether it’d be issues, whether it’d be whatever. When it comes time to play, the come and they play. That’s what Earl does. That’s what I expect from him.

“I know there’s a lot of stuff going on each week. But when it’s Sunday and I see 29 out there I expect him to be where he is supposed to be and make the plays that he’s supposed to make.”

Sunday, after starring with two interceptions while playing every snap in the Seahawks’ 24-13 win over his home-state Dallas Cowboys, Thomas explained not practicing twice last week this way: “I need to make sure my body is 100. And I’m invested in myself. If they was invested in me, I would be out there practicing. ...

“If I feel like anything— don’t give a damn if it’s small, I got a headache—I’m not practicing. ...I’m going to do what I want to do.”

I asked Carroll if there is any indication Thomas’ unhappiness will keep arising throughout the season, in one tangible way or another between games.

“We’re way beyond all that stuff,” Carroll said. “We’ve been working through stuff. We’re going. We’re ready. It’s not even a concern of mine right now. I guess that’s what you’re asking. No, I’m not concerned about it. I think when we’re in a good place. We’ve talked through with the things we needed to talk through and we’re moving.

“I’ve tried to convey to you that we have a long-time relationship and we have a good understanding and we can communicate really well. Banking on that, we have gotten to the point where I think we’re moving forward in a really positive way. I’m trying to say as little about it as possible.

“Let’s move on.”

All signs and logic point to Thomas being gone from the Seahawks after this season. That is, unless a team wows Seattle by meeting its meteoric demands to trade their potential future Hall-of-Fame safety—a first-round draft choice, another high-round pick and maybe a player—in the next four weeks. Or unless the Seahawks suddenly cave from their nine-month stance and decide to give Thomas around $13 million per year with $40 million to be one of the two top-paid safeties in the league past his 33rd or 34th birthday.

Short of those improbable events, Thomas will remain angry and disrespected while in Seattle playing out the final season of his $40 million contract. Then he will become a free agent in March, free to seek the riches he wants in the open market. He won’t skip games this season, because doing that would cost him $500,000 weekly game checks. Not giving away those checks is why he said he ended his holdout this month, days before the opener.

I asked defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. following Thomas missing another workout on the field Wednesday if his six-time Pro Bowl free safety, the longest-tenured Seahawk now that Jon Ryan is gone, even needs to practice at this point in his career.

Norton exhaled for a second.

“Sure. Everybody needs to practice,” Norton, the former Super Bowl-winning linebacker with the 1990s Cowboys and 49ers, said. “I think we understand that practice is a fabric of what we do.

“At the same time, you know, he’s a veteran. You’ve got to make sure that you protect your guys.

“I think we have a good plan for him right now.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 5:43 PM.