ESPN NFL analyst and ESPN Seattle radio host John Clayton joined Dennis & Cowlishaw on KESN-FM 103.3 ESPN recently to talk about Earl Thomas and the Cowboys. Here are some highlights.
On Seahawks GM John Schneider saying Earl Thomas won't hold out:
"If you look at the big picture it's like is he on the market? Yes. Is he a great player? Yes. Can they get value that would satisfy Seattle? Questionable. This was his function. His son has Autism and so this is a big charity that [Schneider] has every year and he speaks to the media. That caught everyone by surprise because the last time he was available was back at the owners meetings, and no talks were going with Earl. There were still the thought that Earl was going to holdout. So it was news when he came out and said that according to representative of Earl Thomas that he wasn't going to holdout into the season. That doesn't preclude the possibility of a training camp holdout, but also what that does do is it sends messages to a team like Dallas that he's going to be there for the season and it won't be a contract issue. But I'm sure Dallas knows that anyway, because if Thomas can make it back into the state of Texas he's going to give any benefit to Dallas."
On if Seattle will demand a first round pick for Thomas:
"I think they can be talked into something less. I went through all the rosters, and it was really kind of weird because 27 teams were in pretty good shape at the free safety position. That included Dallas which was pretty good with Byron Jones, but now they're moving him to cornerback so that opened up one spot he could go to. One spot is Arizona but they're not going to trade him within the division. So really it's Dallas probably or nothing as far as a trade. So knowing that Dallas would probably prefer to get a wide receiver in the first round now that Dez Bryant is gone, they draft one spot behind Seattle, I think it's more likely it would be a No. 2, but then what's added to the No. 2 would probably be the determination if they would be satisfied or not."
On what a potential draft day trade for Earl Thomas would like without the No. 19 pick:
"I'd say a 2, 4 and then maybe something next year. That might be too much, but something in the neighborhood of a 2 and a 4 and something else on a swap."
On if Pete Carroll's comments about Thomas mean anything:
"Not really. Pete's always gonna be the positive one talking about trying to keep everything together, trying to keep the team together. He doesn't get involved in any of the financial aspects of it. Naturally, you're the coach and he's such an important guy for the defense, maybe the most important guy for the defense. So he's counting on him being there, but he doesn't know exactly what Earl will do until Earl does it. We saw that after the game against Dallas.
"One other thing to add to the mix to show you where the mystery continues. That have all the big posters on the side of Century Link Field with all the top players on the team. They put eight up and guess whose picture wasn't on it? Earl Thomas. They have seven up the other day when the Mariners game was going on, and there was the eighth. According to sources the eighth was going to Shaquille Griffin, but Earl was right now removed from Century Link."
On the NFL draft:
"It's one of the more interesting drafts because you got four quarterbacks up top and you figure they'll still somehow go in the top seven or eight, and that's going to make it fascinating. Then of course we've already had like 25 trades compared to eight to 10 from a year ago. I think it's just going to be a real wild draft and a lot fun. The big thing right now is can the Colts trade down their entire draft and pick up as many picks as they can? They're going to be a moving team much like we saw Cleveland the last couple of years."