Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said on Friday that safety Earl Thomas’ shoulder injury is effectively over.
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The Seahawks’ official injury report over the week has had safety Earl Thomas either sitting out or with limited participation in practice. The Friday report was no exception, listing Thomas as limited in practice and questionable to play, should there be a game on Sunday. However, coach Pete Carroll contradicted the report on Friday, saying that Thomas is no longer dealing with the injury in any significant way.
“It’s over,” Carroll told reporters on Friday. “It’s over, really. It was two days of him being very uncomfortable with the setting and it’s over now. He was back in action and in full flow today.” (via Pro Football Talk)
As Mike Florio writes for PFT, it’s less about discomfort for Thomas and more about the range of motion he may or may not have back. NBC Sports analyst Mike Ryan described some of the difficulties Thomas might have.
"Ryan explained it’s not about pain but range of motion, if Thomas will be wearing a harness to stabilize the shoulder he dislocated. Ryan said that could make it difficult for Thomas to reached over his head with his hands and arms — which could hamper his ability to deal with a tall pass-catcher like Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski."
Of course, it’s not likely to be Thomas covering Gronk, but rather one of the linebackers such as K.J. Wright or strong safety Kam Chancellor, who patrol the middle of the field. Thomas will more likely be coming in for the swift hit if coverage on Gronk breaks down. Last week he had no problem doing that as he hit Packers running back Eddie Lacy so hard he had to take a seat. Not only did Thomas hit Lacy that hard, but he used his injured and braced shoulder to do it.
Thomas’ fellow injured Legion of Boom member, Richard Sherman, has been a full participant in practice all week and is listed as probable on the team’s injury report for Friday. Both players have said that they will 100 percent definitely be playing in the Super Bowl.
As I wrote earlier in the week, it’s one of the many stories outside of the NFL‘s investigation of Deflategate to keep an eye on in the coming week before the Super Bowl. The Seahawks need their vaunted secondary to be healthy and firing on all cylinders if they want to stop Tom Brady, Gronk and the Patriots passing game in Super Bowl XLIX.
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