When Tyrice Knight missed part of training camp while dealing with injury, it opened up the opportunity for other players to get first-team reps. One of those players was Drake Thomas who on Monday, showed why head coach Mike Macdonald said, “You’ve seen what Drake is doing out there. Hard to take him off the field.”
Thomas made his fourth start alongside Ernest Jones IV this season and has five passes defensed, 2.0 sacks and 32 tackles through seven games.
“Drake’s a baller man,” Jones said. “I said it at the beginning of the season. If things were to go down, regardless of the names in that room, bro, we got a bunch of ballers, a bunch of true linebackers who can go out there and any given Sunday they can go out there and make plays and Drake’s just a testament to that. He’s doing that. Proud of him.”
Safety Julian Love has been sidelined with a hamstring injury for three games, although he is expected to be back after the bye week. In his absence, third-year safety Ty Okada has made the start in his place. Okada has 1.5 sacks and 37 tackles through seven games played.
Immediately following Monday’s game, Macdonald said, “Really proud of Ty. Talk about another guy as we walk in the door, just does everything right all the time with a great attitude. His teammates love him. Just an absolute worker. He’s tough, smart. We take a lot of pride in upholding the standard. That was one of the things our guys talked about last night. Ty is one of those guys that does it. He’s done a phenomenal job. He deserves a major shout-out. He’s worked his tail off for this opportunity. He’s helped us win, what, two football games here in the last three games.”
“Every time I go out there, I want to uphold the standard that we’re the best defense in the league,” Okada said. “And that’s what we expect, no matter who’s out there, no matter what 11 guys are out there.”
The Seahawks’ ability to have players ready to go as soon as one player goes down with an injury is something Macdonald has harped on since the beginning of the season. Players walk the halls of the Virginia Mason Athletic Center with shirts that say, “READY SQUAD,” a term the Seahawks football staff has coined instead of using “practice squad.” The messaging behind the shirts is that all 70 players, active roster and practice squad alike will add to Seattle’s successes. And this has proven to be truer each week, when a starter is unable to play.
“It’s why the 70 matter,” Macdonald said earlier this season. “It’s why we coach everybody all the time. It’s why we do what we do. It’s always been my personal philosophy of depth and growth and development, that’s really important, but it was really John’s vision of how he wants it to operate, and it meshes with our philosophy,” Macdonald said. “It makes a lot of sense, and I think it’s the best way to do it. I love how we do it.”
While Thomas and Okada have just been the latest players to embody this mindset, cornerback Derion Kendrick and safety D’Anthony Bell have also showed success when called on this season.
