Well, this isn’t where anyone seemed to expect Orange native Earl Thomas to end up.

But the longtime fixture of Seattle’s secondary is apparently headed to Baltimore as ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Wednesday that Thomas will sign with the Baltimore Ravens. The NFL Network also reported the deal and that Thomas will sign a four-year contract with the Ravens worth $55 million and $32 million guaranteed.

That gives Thomas an average per year salary of $13.75 million which would put Thomas just behind the $14 million per year of Landon Collins (who signed this week with Washington) and Tyrann Mathieu (who signed with Kansas City). Thomas made $10 million a year on his previous contract with Seattle.

The Ravens became interested in Thomas after releasing Eric Weddle last week. Weddle eventually signed with the Rams, a team that had been thought interested in Thomas.

Seattle will host the Ravens at CenturyLink Field next season so Thomas will make a quick return to Seattle.

Shortly after the news broke, Thomas tweeted simply “Yeaaaaaaaa !!” with emojis of a money bag and praying hands.

Thomas had made it clear for more than a year that he wanted a significant contract extension to stay with Seattle or he wanted to move on. That desire led to Thomas holding out all of training camp last year, only to return before the start of the regular season so he would not miss any game checks of his $8.5 million base salary in 2019. He played just four games in 2019 before suffering a broken leg in a game against Arizona, his second broken leg in three seasons.

Thomas had also made it clear he would he happy to head to his home state of Texas and play for Dallas., infamously approaching Cowboys coach Jason Garrett and telling him to “come get me” following a game there on Christmas Eve in 2017.

But Dallas reportedly did not want to pay Thomas more than about $11 million a year. It’s also thought Thomas and the Seahawks never had significant talks on an extension.

Rumors circulated Tuesday night that Thomas was talking with the Cleveland Browns. But those reports were quashed early Wednesday morning and news then broke of his signing with the Ravens.