Drake in the cash: Seahawks extend Thomas
Seaside Joe passes the 7-year mark of a daily newsletter about the Seahawks
People like to collect things, it’s even been called a “universal human behavior”. My things lately have been t-shirts and physical media of obscure movies.
“Collecting is driven by the desire for control – a psychological need to manage one's environment, especially during chaotic times.”
Bill Parcells said his thing was linebackers.
Linebackers certainly helped the Seahawks steady the ship during chaotic times en route to winning the Super Bowl and not just Ernest Jones. And so Mike Macdonald re-invested into his own collection on Thursday as Seattle re-signed Drake Thomas to a two-year contract worth up to $9 million.
It’s not quite as much as the $5 million per year that I predicted the Seahawks would give Thomas on a new contract to avoid the RFA tender, but close enough.
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Everyone loves the Drake
It’s fitting that Drake Thomas gets paid the week after the NFL Scouting Combine because he represents everything that can go wrong by overrating measurables.
As a draft prospect, Thomas was projected as an undrafted free agent (which was proven accurate) and a future practice squad/special teams camp body who might win over a coaching staff because of his acumen for just being a darn good football player and hang onto the 53 as a reserve. That was also true until last season and only after Tyrice Knight opened the door for Thomas to get an opportunity several games into the season to be a starter.
In 2023, the Raiders signed Thomas and had the first crack at letting him win over the team but then Las Vegas let him go at final cuts in favor of someone named Amari Burney. Presumably because they had spent a sixth round pick on Burney, which led to Josh McDaniels (who was fired shortly thereafter) keeping Burney over Thomas despite an undeniable difference in ability during the 2023 preseason.
Tuesday the Raiders made Thomas one of the players they waived to get down to 53 players. The hope being that they could get him back on the practice squad. They never got that chance.
The moment Thomas came available, the Seahawks nabbed him off waivers, signing him to the active roster. It was a risk the Raiders were taking and one that backfired.
Thomas led the Raiders with 10 tackles in that game. By a wide margin. No other Raiders defender had half as many tackles. The closest being LB Amari Burney with four tackles. Burney was kept on the roster over Thomas for what seems like no other discernible reason than Burney was drafted and Thomas was not.
Burney was waived after the 2024 season and appears to be out of the NFL.
Ironically, Thomas narrowly missed the chance to play for Antonio Pierce, a former undrafted linebacker who scrapped his way into a 9-year NFL career with a Pro Bowl appearance. If that’s not enough, the Raiders ended up hiring the head coach who picked up Thomas on waivers and then Pete Carroll’s situation was so bad that he ended up using Jamal Adams at linebacker, a former teammate of Thomas’s in Seattle.
It’s not that the concerns about Thomas’s size as a prospect are without merit — the size difference is very obvious on the field — and next season will be even more important than last season because now he has to backup his breakout campaign (96 tackles, 10 TFL, 3.5 sacks, 1 INT) with another; it’s harder for an undrafted player to keep a starting job than to get a starting opportunity.
But if Thomas gets to 2027 as a starter, this two-year contract means that he can ask to go right back to the table for another raise.
And hold Macdonald off from adding to his collection of linebackers with the next Drake Thomas.
Chuck Turtleman: How do you suspect JS will go about replacing all the departures? We have to get a running back with K9 likely to depart and Charbonnet projected to miss most of the season. As RBs go, Travis Etienne or Atlanta's Algier? What chance do you give us to trade for an edge rusher? If not a big name like Crosby or Hendrickson, maybe a guy who would only cost a day 2 pick, like Grenard or Jaelan Phillips?
I don’t think Tyler Allgeier is very good. I don’t remember the exact stats I saw, but I recall looking at some of the worst numbers for backs in certain situations last year and Allgeier being at the bottom. That’s not a very solid argument, especially for someone like me who wants to cite the numbers, but it’s the time I can afford on Allgeier today.
In general, Seattle can look at last season’s free agents like Rico Dowdle, Javonte Williams, JK Dobbins and see that a $2-$3 million option is sometimes better than an $8-$10 million option.
I’ve picked out Chris Rodriguez as an option although that was when I expected him to pair with Kenneth Walker. I still think that a player like that and a rookie would be a Seahawk-y thing to do.
Jaelan Phillips is a free agent and probably one who gets overpaid. Jonathan Greenard has an $18 million salary, which is more than any player on the Seahawks, unless you include Sam Darnold’s roster bonus; then Greenard would be the second-highest paid player on the team. Greenard is a good player but I don’t think that Seattle would give up a pick or two and then also probably need to extend him to bring down his cap number.
Maybe the Seahawks would try to play the “Wanna win a Super Bowl?” game with Trey Hendrickson and see if he’d take a number that is not his best offer or close to his best offer.
I think the Seahawks might have traded for Maxx Crosby if they hadn’t won the Super Bowl, but since they did, I think Seattle is more prone to find value players than to reach for the top shelf liquor.
Grant: I'm struggling to understand the RB plan right now. Why not franchise tag Ken Walker? I know you already wrote about this and I don't think anything has really changed, so no need to comment. I'm just venting a bit because I feel like this is a mistake by Schneider. If he's so valuable right now, why not at least tag him and look for a trade partner? Get something for him!
Although it’s not looking good, we still don’t know for sure if Walker is leaving. Criticisms of the decision or indecision on Walker could be valid, but we’ll need to get a little bit more information after free agency to weigh the exact level of it as a mistake.
Scott M: Will teams overpay for our defenders just to get a glimpse into MM system?
It’s a good point and we’ve actually already seen this happen. Macdonald had the top defense with the Ravens in 2023 and a lot of players go paid for punching above their weight class:
Ravens re-signed Nnamdi Madubuike (hasn’t been the same player in the last 2 years)
Bengals overpaid S Geno Stone
Jets overpaid CB Brandon Stephens
Steelers overpaid LB Patrick Queen
When I think of “the Super Bowl tax” I always go back to Bucs safety Dexter Jackson, the Super Bowl MVP in 2002 who then signed a big free agent contract with the Cardinals in 2003. He was back on the Bucs in 2004.
Even if Coby Bryant and Josh Jobe leave in free agency they might not have played their last game for Mike Macdonald.
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I’m 100% behind the Thomas signing. ILB is one position group we don’t have to worry about. Yesterday JS said it was news to him Shaheed had already determined he was leaving the Seahawks. He didn’t say he was remotely likely to sign with the Hawks, but he did say he expected to be given a shot at him after he gets some solid offers. But yeah, it will probably cross JS’s line in the sand and we’ll lose Shaheed. If I’m being honest, I think this hurts special teams more than it does the WR room. We can get a solid WR in round 3 and maybe bring in Nailor to get back together with Darnold.
I agree with you that K9 is not gone for sure, and even if he gets a 3 year $42 million dollar contract, what are we talking about for guaranteed money? I don’t expect the Hawks to go that high, but I think they could offer an incentives heavy contract with the ability to earn $3 million a year for performance and games played. I would say the hawks would pay him the money if they knew he was going to be healthy for 20 games every year. They just don’t trust him to stay healthy. I doubt he’s back with the hawks, but there’s a chance if he takes a heavily incentivized contract that protects the Hawks for injuries and rewards K9 for playing to his ability and staying healthy.
No news on D-Law retiring. Chenna is still there. Those two along with D Hall and the edge room is not in terrible position. If they pick up a one year vet edge and they could get by and maybe they supplement with a rookie edge this year in round one or two.
Jobe is the next critical piece. If he gets too expensive that will be a big loss. If they get Jobe inked, and sign a vet to a one year deal, a rookie draft pick in round 1 or 2 can complete the CB room.
The chess game has just begun for JS.
If we lose RS and K9 I would love to see a couple UW players get picked to fill the gaps. Boston and Coleman. Boston does return duties and Coleman has zero career fumbles. He's the only major program RB in the draft with ZERO fumbles according to PFF. Also had only one dropped pass too. Glad Thomas got paid, he's a good ball player. I still think he could get upgraded at some point. Can't wait to see how this all shakes out.