Will Cowboys have interest in Earl Thomas?

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It did not take long after the Ravens released Earl Thomas for many to list the Cowboys as a leading contender for the Pro Bowl safety.

The Cowboys, of course, make sense since they tried to trade for Thomas in 2018, but a source said “nothing right now” when asked if the team would have interest in him.

They didn’t have interest in Thomas in 2019 free agency, but that seemingly had more to do with his asking price than anything else. He ended up with a four-year, $55 million deal with the Ravens.

Dallas, which hasn’t had a Pro Bowl safety since Roy Williams in 2007, felt like it shored up the position this offseason by signing Ha Ha Clinton-Dix to a reasonable one-year, $4 million deal.

Thomas, a Texas native who played at the University of Texas, never has hidden his desire to play for America’s Team. He chased then-coach Jason Garrett to the Cowboys’ locker room to tell Garrett to “come get me” after a game in 2017.

However, many things have changed since then.

Yes, the Cowboys did sign pass rushers Aldon Smith and Everson Griffen this year, but their issues differed from Thomas’. Smith and Griffen also had champions on the Cowboys’ coaching staff, as Mike Fisher of SI.com points out.

Smith played for Cowboys defensive line coach Jim Tomsula in San Francisco and Griffen was with Cowboys defensive assistant George Edwards in Minnesota. Kris Richard, who was a defensive coordinator in Seattle for part of the time Thomas was there, no longer is in Dallas.

So where does that leave Thomas if the Cowboys don’t become interested?

John McClain of the Houston Chronicle reports the Texans have no interest.

Thomas, 31, might get another chance somewhere, but he might have to settle for what he can get, and it likely won’t be in his home state of Texas.

It’s a given he won’t become the league’s highest-paid safety, something he sought last offseason.