Earl Thomas surgery leaves start of 2015 in jeopardy

First Jeremy Lane, then Tharold Simon, now it is Earl Thomas. The Seattle Seahawks secondary has major injury concerns for the 2015 season, and the season is still six months away.

#Seahawks S Earl Thomas is scheduled for surgery today to repair torn labrum that caused shoulder dislocation. Rehab is 6 to 8 months
— Ed Werder (@WerderEdESPN) February 24, 2015

Do the math, and you’ll realize that even if Thomas is on the absolute earliest edge of that recovery period that there is going to problems. Even if his recovery is only six months, he’ll still miss all of training camp, all of the preseason, and still will be pushing it to be ready in time for Week 1.

If his recovery pushes to the long edge of that timetable, then he isn’t back until midseason. That means that Thomas will spend a big chunk of the season on the PUP list.

Even that assumes that his surgically repaired shoulder will be ready for NFL-level contact. Playing safety in the NFL doesn’t exactly imply a standard recovery from such a major surgery.

Seattle’s need to add talent at cornerback for the 2015 season just became much larger. They can not afford to go into the 2015 season with major question marks as to who is going to play opposite Richard Sherman.

They’ve gotten away with playing less-than ideal players on the outside in the past because of Thomas’ ability to clean up mistakes. Without Thomas out there, or if he is significantly limited, the Seahawks will need to have the rest of their secondary in top form in order to have the type of success that the Seattle fans are used to seeing.

Ultimately, the easy solution here would be to use a top draft pick on a player like Washington’s Marcus Peters. Either him, or another CB that fits Seattle’s system and has the talent to play right away, would fix that spot opposite Sherman for the next four seasons. It would also take the pressure off at FS should the Seahawks play significant time with a backup at the position.

Ultimately though, the key point here is that Thomas’ injury complicates an already-difficult problem. The Seahawks must find an answer, and it could limit their ability to improve other parts of the roster.

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