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The halcyon days of yesterday, where it appeared your Houston Texans were on the verge of signing Earl Thomas III, are over. Today, in the harsh light of Tuesday, word from multiple reporters is that the Texans have canceled their planned workout of the former Seahawks and Ravens safety and will not sign him after all.
#Texans will not be signing free agent safety Earl Thomas.
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) September 29, 2020
After a lot of internal discussion, Texans decided Earl Thomas wasn't a good fit.
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) September 29, 2020
Texans' planned workout with veteran free agent safety Earl Thomas won't take place today after undergoing physical, per league sources. Could be revisited later as 0-3 team evaluates its options at safety
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) September 29, 2020
The #Texans had 5 safeties they planned to work out, including Earl Thomas. The workout is now TBD. With no deal in place and nothing imminent, Houston focuses on its next game and Earl Thomas’ wait continues. https://t.co/2V52MiUpHb
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 29, 2020
Whether this change of plan was motivated more by the sudden question of whether the Texans will actually host the Vikings on Sunday, concerns about what was found during Thomas’ physical, or the simple desire to take a different path toward addressing the holes in their defense, I don’t know. It’s also possible that Bill O’Brien & Co. change tack again. We’ll update as events warrant.
UPDATE: Via Instagram, Earl Thomas says his canceled workout at NRG Park was due entirely to a shutdown after what happened with the Titans and Vikings.
Earl Thomas @Earl_Thomas on Instagram on cancellation of his scheduled Texans workout: pic.twitter.com/rqKIqvhMbv
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) September 30, 2020
UPDATE II: Bill O’Brien says the cancellation was because the Texans, after being contacted by the league yesterday morning in the wake of the positive COVID-19 tests in Tennessee, didn’t want the players they brought in for tryouts to get stuck in Houston while the situation with the Vikings and whether the Week Four game at NRG Stadium would go forward as scheduled gets sorted out.
BOB explanation of Earl Thomas situation: "Yesterday early in the morning we got a phone call from the league relative to Minnesota-Tennessee ... instead of keeping those guys holed up in a hotel potentially to be there for several days ... it was better to cancel the workouts." pic.twitter.com/XOivqxUQA1
— Rivers McCown (@riversmccown) September 30, 2020