With free safety Earl Thomas out for the season, the Seahawks are turning to 2017 fourth-round pick Tedric Thompson to take over the back end of their defense.
Thompson has appeared in 13 career games for Seattle but has yet to start a regular season game for the team. He played just eight defensive snaps as a rookie but has been a more regular part of the team’s defense this year in their dime packages. He has played on 58 out of 259 snaps on defense this season, including taking over for Thomas in the fourth quarter of last week’s game in Arizona.
“We’re excited about his play and he’s just growing,” head coach Pete Carroll said. “He’s really mature about stuff, he’s really worked hard to understand the scheme and the principles of what we want and he plays really strict and disciplined football. You put that all together, it makes for a chance to be a very productive player.”
Thompson took almost all of the team’s reps at free safety this offseason and through training camp as Thomas held out in hopes of leveraging a new contract from the team. He started all four preseason games at the position for the Seahawks before Thomas reported for the start of the regular season.
“We have a lot of confidence in Tedric,” defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. said. “During Earl’s time off during the offseason, it really gave Tedric the time to really develop to really make an impact, to really come close to his teammates, to really show the guys that he can play. I think that we are all very comfortable with what we have seen in the past and in the development over the last offseason and now. We’re very, very comfortable with our situation.”
Thompson won’t get a soft landing in his first start as the league’s best offense and second-best scoring team in the Los Angeles Rams come to town on Sunday. The last time the two teams met in December, the Rams handed Seattle their most lopsided defeat in ages with a 42-7 thrashing. The Rams offense may be a more fine tuned machine now than they were then.
But when it comes to the long haul, the Seahawks feel strongly that Thompson will produce.
“Now that he’s a starter, I’m sure he’s excited about that. I haven’t mentioned it to him specifically, but I’m sure he’s excited about it and this is kind of the opportunity he was looking for. He’s prepared for this the whole time,” Carroll said. “There was a bit of a setback just in terms of relying on him as the starter. He’s seen a lot, he’s learned a lot, and I’m really thinking he’s going to handle this very, very well.”
