The Seattle Seahawks lost a tough home game to the Baltimore Raves just a few short days again. It probably stung Pete Carroll a bit to lose that game to his former All Pro free Safety Early Thomas. I’m sure it stung even more for him to see Thomas’ replacement Tedric Thompson give up an easy fifty yard completion during the opening possession of the game. That was simply a play that would not happen on Thomas, and Pete’s golden rule with his defense is to not give up easy deep passes. Thompson has given up a few this season, and for Pete Carroll, I suspect he had seen enough.

During his Monday afternoon press conference he referred to Thompson giving up that play as “distasteful” and in the near decade that he has been in Seattle, I think those were the harshest words I have ever heard him say regarding one of his players. He was quick to praise rookie safety Marquise Blair’s efforts and all put assured that he would see more significant playing time moving forward.

One day later, enter former Detriot Lions safety Quandre Diggs.

What does Seattle get with this guy?

Seattle was able to get a young starting safety who was a pro bowl alternate last year for only a 5th round pick. He might not be a household name in these parts, but several of the Detroit Lion players went on Twitter after the trade blasting Detroit’s decision to move him. He was their defensive captain, a team leader, clearly a guy well loved in the locker room, and when you consider that he is only 26, and is signed through 2021, it really feels like Seattle made out pretty well in this move.

What this means for Seattle I’m not 100% certain about. On the immediate surface, my thought was that he replaces Tedric Thompson at free safety even though he played strong in Detroit’s system. At 5-9 and 200 pounds, he does not possess the physical profile of what Seattle usually likes to use at strong safety, and one scouting report I read is that he would be better served as a deep safety than someone playing in the box. It’s also possible that the back injury to strong safety Bradley McDougald is worse than the team was hoping and they had to make this move to get quality experience on the back end, asap.

Another thought that I had is that perhaps Seattle is done with keeping three linebackers on the field to the extreme extent that they were, and they want to get faster player out there in coverage. Diggs was drafted as a corner, and could be a big part of the team’s nickel packages moving forward even if they have a healthy Bradley McDougald and Marquise Blair. They might decide that their best defensive look in most passing situations is to have these three safeties on the field, and they pull out either KJ Wright or Mychal Kendricks.

It could certainly also mean that all three of these things are true. One thing I am positively certain abut is that Quandre Diggs was not brought in to be a role player for this squad. He was brought in to be an immediate upgrade at what has been the weakest area of the team, the secondary.

Twelves who have been clamoring for an upgrade at safety have just gotten their wish.

Is Seattle done shopping?

I highly doubt it. I’ve been suspecting for over the past week that Seattle would be in the market of acquiring a starting tight end. Even with this trade, they still have plenty of salary cap room to add a player of significance to the offense. I still think it will most likely be a tight end, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if Seattle makes a move on a wide receiver, if a really good one is suddenly available.

Atlanta has a good tight end in Austin Hooper who suddenly might become available after Seattle plays them this Sunday. We shall soon see.

Go Hawks.