Earl Thomas resigned himself to a one-year prove-it contract. Then the Ravens swooped in.
After seeing fellow safeties Landon Collins, Tyrann Mathieu and Adrian Amos land big deals while his market remained slow to materialize, Thomas told NBC's Peter King for his *Football Morning In America *column, that he'd rationalized signing a one-year, $12 million deal with incentives.
Next, Baltimore called.
"The Ravens were never in the picture," Thomas told King. "I was shocked. I was blessed."
The deal came quickly, with the Ravens giving Thomas $35 million guaranteed in the first two years of the four-year, $55 million contract.
"I thought I was signing for one year somewhere else," Thomas said, "and my agent [David Mulugheta] said, 'I think you're going to like this.'"
Like it, indeed.
Thomas told the Ravens' official website last week he thought he was headed to Kansas City before Baltimore upped the ante.
The Ravens, seemingly desperate to make a defensive splash after cutting Eric Weddle and watching C.J. Mosley, Terrell Suggs and Za'Darius Smith sign elsewhere, made the veteran an offer he couldn't refuse.
After seeing his 2018 campaign end on a broken leg, Thomas looked like he'd be forced to play out another year without a long-term deal until the Ravens made the call. The safety's situation once again underscored the truism that in free agency it only takes one team for a player to get paid.
