Sometimes I swear I don't understand what passes for logic in this forum.

Let's take one of the best safeties in the game and move him to a nickel coverage guy? yes, this makes perfect sense to me. Great safeties are a dime a dozen, but nickel coverage guys are rare finds.

Madden and Fantasy Football gives people strange ideas.

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Give me some damn skittles...

It is about what is better for the defense. If they move him to cover the slot and the defense is better as a whole, then it is a good decision.

Nickel coverage is becoming more and more prevalent and actually moreso moving to the norm. NFL teams are rolling with 3 WRs are ton nowadays. This isn't just a 3rd and long type personnel anymore.

You just don't get the difference between the ability to find a safety of Thomas' ability and a Nickel of Thomas' ability do you? One is much harder than the other.

Tell you what, if they can get a Safety as good as Thomas, then they can move him to nickel, but in reality, it's going to be MUCH MUCH easier to find a CB who can play Nickel as well as Thomas can while still leaving Thomas at the position he is GREAT at.

I said only 3rd down situations . With the D-line pinning the ears back to rush the passer and a Jeron Johnson or Guy filling in the deep safety spot . How would that not help?

Wait .. our defense was amazing on 3rd down , my bad.

Now you're just talking crazy. You don't move the fastest pro bowl caliber free safety in the NFL from arguably the toughest position to fill on a defense to a part time slot nickel cover CB..............ever.

I'm pretty sure Earl was just talking crap anyway letting everyone know he can cover people outside as well as play safety. Don't think he was serious.

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If there is no Seahawk football in heaven, then we will never die.

I think most people have stated they are intrigued by this in a situational basis only. I, and some others, have already stated our preference for finding a capable slot DB. Seattle was pretty weak defending slot receivers on third down this season. Might be worth a one or two play experiment if that remains an area of weakness.

No need to get all high and mighty.

And an all-pro.

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Give me some damn skittles...

If Earl IS serious about this, and you're talking only 3rd downs, you have to consider it. If it's something Earl really wants to do, to the point where it upsets him if he doesn't, then you have to do what it takes to make him happy. Otherwise, he could just walk out once free agency comes around. I don't see this as happening, but stranger things have happened. If you can't find a guy who can cover for nickel downs, then teams are going to continue to burn us (see Trufant). My hope though is that Lane (or if WTIII can stay healthy) will be playing nickel corner next year, or we find another great corner in the later rounds of this draft.

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So, your solution for 3rd down is to move a young all-pro FS out of position, and have someone who isn't an all-pro safety play his position on a 3rd down when we already have trouble on 3rd down? I don't see how that helps.

Want to know how you get better at nickel corner? You don't let Trufant play it.

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Give me some damn skittles...

Its not my solution , even though I said it should happen since about week 5 , its Earls solution!

This is pretty key. People seem to have written Thurmond off, and I can't really blame them given his inability to stay on the field, but if he can come back completely healthy, we already have our answer on nickel downs. His healthy return would be pretty huge for Seattle.

If we get a healthy WTIII, forget Revis, forget Thomas playing slot. We'd be dead set at CB.

I agree. But at this point a healthy WT3 seems as likely as us signing Ed Reed

It's not "Earl's solution", it's a guy talking and having fun at the pro bowl. Next thing you know, you guys are going to want to trade for JJ Watt to be our next WR, because he played the position in the Pro Bowl.

Maybe they'll trade is JJ Watt straight up for Flynn. Makes sense to me! After that we get RW to switch to Kicker because Haushka can't get it done.

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Give me some damn skittles...

Your straw man argument supplemented with sarcasm isn't logic. The implication of what ET was doing is he believes he's more than capable of playing the slot and he wants our coaching staff to look into the possibility of using this versatility to improve our overall defense (IE NOT a full-time move). Looking into this is entirely logical given our less than stellar coverage of slot receivers and the NFL increasingly using slot receivers in their pass game. It's a creative solution to a defensive problem we as fans overlook because it's not as big of a hole in our boat as our problems getting after QBs.

Did you guys scoff and roll your eyes every time Perry, a DT, ran a TD in for the Bears? Vrabel, a LB, coming in & Goal situations for the Pats? How about when teams like DET and ATL put Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones back deep on defense in hail-mary situations? We could very well be better off with ET never covering the slot guy in any situation but to discount the idea solely because it's a change of position is nothing short of foolish.

Sooo.............while Earl is covering someone in the slot in your little "thinking outside the box" scenario, who's playing safety?

I for one cannot think of one scenario where it'd make sense to move Earl from his safety position into the slot. If you're being fair in any of the above examples then you're saying "hey, instead of the Fridge playing nose tackle destroying people, let's move him to running back!" Exactly, doesn't work does it?

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If there is no Seahawk football in heaven, then we will never die.

1. Every situation you just described is an offensive to defense substitution or vice versa. You know, those times when they're normally off the field and aren't busy being all-pro.

2. Your analogy is no different than ET playing special teams, which he already does.

3. 3rd downs happen a lot more often than any of the situations you described.

4. Some of us prefer that we find a suitable nickel corner not named Marcus Trufant.

5. Some of us prefer our all-pro free roaming safety to be an all-pro free roaming safety.

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Give me some damn skittles...

No, YOU assume that's what Earl was doing, because YOU believe it is a good idea. Neither you nor I have any idea what Earl was trying to say. With the atmosphere of the game, I find it FAR FAR more likely he was having some fun with the situation. It's the pro bowl, not REAL football. There's no way in hell that Earl Thomas believes that the "Film" provided by his play in the pro bowl has any meaning whatsoever.

Now, I can't say that Thomas wouldn't want the change (although I do doubt it), but to assume he does because of what happened in a pro bowl game is really stretching reality.

As I stated in an earlier reply...it's MUCH easier to improve the Nickel position than it will be to improve the safety situation. If we were to get someone who could fill Earl's shoes as well as Thomas does it now, I'd have no problem with the move, be it temporary or permanent, but I'm one who firmly believes that the drop in talent at the Safety position with this move is far greater than the possible improvement we'd see at the Nickel CB position by this move, thus making our defense weaker. So, it makes more sense to find a player to improve the nickel while leaving Earl at his primary position.