A day after Pete Carroll made the prudent decision to not risk star safety Earl Thomas on punt returns, Thomas said he won’t fight it.
He’d like to do it again some time, but he won’t fight it, while they let Bryan Walters have his shot.
“It’s not about me, it’s about the team,” Thomas said, via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. “So I just took it that way. I’m all in no matter what the situation is. B-Walt, he’s a great returner, he deserves it, he’s been working hard. It doesn’t always happen like you want it too.
“But I know I’m still up as far as situationally and I’ll aways be prepared. I know I’m going to impact this team as far as punt return in a positive way. I have full faith in my capaibiity and I’m not worrying about anything. But the fans, they can kind of sleep easier now. They can stop sending their regards in. They were a little bit selfish in my perspective. But it’s a give-give, I guess. But overall, man, I’m just happy to be a part of this team. That’s it.”
Thomas clearly thinks he’d be safe if he continued.
“Yeah, of course. You know, it’s just like me saying in your job, I don’t want you to get a promotion because you are too good at what you do,” he said. “People don’t understand you, so they don’t know what you are capable of. They just are so used to seeing you in a certain role they don’t want you to expand. That’s just my mind frame.”
The Seahawks would be wise to hold it out there as a carrot, to keep Thomas focused and to make opponents take their eye off the ball, if only for a second.
But take away the fact he wasn’t very good at it last week, and it just wasn’t worth the potential peril for the Seahawks.