Seattle Seahawks cornerback DeShawn Shead appeared to suffer a scary non-contact injury to his knee against the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Division round.
The Seattle Seahawks have leaned on their formidable defense for the entire Pete Carroll era. It’s been great for Seattle for so long, but it seems to keep getting hurt at its weakest point. Free safety Earl Thomas’ late-season replacement DeShawn Shead looks like he just wrecked his knee.
He was trying to make a play on the vaunted Atlanta passing game. Shead made a cut that his knee wasn’t up for. It looked really bad for a non-contact play. He was able to get off the field on his own power, but had to eventually be carted off into the Georgia Dome once he got to the sidelines.
DeShawn Shead putting no weight on his left leg as he's helped off. They checked his knee while teammates prayed nearby.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 14, 2017
This forced Carroll’s hand even more at free safety. He had to put in rookie DeAndre Elliott out of Colorado State University in at Seattle’s most vulnerable position. Free safety is the lynchpin to Carroll’s Cover 3 defense. This is because the strong safety Kam Chancellor usually plays up in the box to make it a front-eight as a safety/linebacer hybrid.
Shead had done a phenomenal job of replacing the irreplaceable Thomas in the middle of the Seattle back three. He has so much ground to cover when Chancellor moves up into the box.
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Surely Elliott has taken some snaps in that role, but his forced entry into the game severely limits what Carroll and defensive coordinator Kris Richard can do in coverage concepts. It will take a few lucky breaks the rest of the way for the Seahawks to be able to stop this historically good Falcons offense. Hopefully Shead didn’t tear multiple ligaments in his knee. It doesn’t look promising.