NFL Notes: Earl Thomas, Cowboys, Seahawks

Earl Thomas

• Ed Werder reports that there were a “fair amount” of trade discussions today between the Cowboys and Seahawks regarding a potential Earl Thomas trade.
• However, Werder says that nothing happened simply because neither team was willing to move towards an agreement.

Cowboys

While reports from Friday mentioned that long-time TE Jason Witten plans to retire and join the Monday Night Football booth, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said there’s no timeline for Witten to make a decision.

“As I saw Troy [Aikman] say, that’s his decision, and he’s got the time to make it,” Jones said. “He deserves the time to make that. I don’t have a timeline on it. I do know that when we left [Friday], he certainly thought he wanted the weekend to come to some conclusion.”

Seahawks

The Seahawks are clearly hoping to solve their running back issues with first-round pick Rashaad Penny.

Seattle GM John Schneider explained that there are a number of attributes that stand out with Penny and why they were comfortable taking him in round one.

“He’s had a couple years of production,” Schneider said, via Pro Football Talk. “He had 1,000 yards last year. That’s not a concern at all. He had some really interesting analytics and stats about him with durability, run after contact, run after first contact. He actually, of this group [of running backs], was number one in both categories.”

Seahawks HC Pete Carroll emphasized Penny’s durability as something that really stood out to him.

“It was an important element in his makeup and background,” Carroll said.