With the Atlanta Falcons losing Ricardo Allen for the year, joining Keanu Neal, the team needs help at safety and an Earl Thomas trade must be considered.
The injury luck (or lack thereof) early in the 2018 season has been horrendous for the Atlanta Falcons. We’re only three weeks into the season and the Falcons are already down three critical starters on that side of the ball.
To start things off, the Falcons watched both strong safety Keanu Neal and linebacker Deion Jones go down in the season-opener. Neal is out for the season while Jones is out indefinitely, but certainly won’t be in the lineup for quite some time. In a Week 3 loss to the New Orleans Saints, the injuries continued to pile up. Starting free safety Ricardo Allen suffered a torn Achilles, ending his 2018 campaign as well.
As the roster currently stands, that leaves Atlanta having to start Keith Tandy at free safety and Damontae Kazee at strong. The latter, although inexperienced, isn’t the worst option. Tandy playing in tandem with a young complement on the back end, however, does present an issue. Thus, the Falcons have to search for options.
Perhaps the quickest and least costly fix for the Dirty Birds would be to look at the free agent market. Eric Reid is still sitting there on the open market unsigned.
Reid has proven to be a quality player at safety throughout his career, though it would seem that the controversy surrounding him kneeling for the national anthem has led to him not having an NFL team in 2018. Regardless of that, he would fill the void in the Atlanta defense.
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If the Falcons were inclined to, though, they could make a splash to both fill their now glaring hole at safety and strengthen their defense for the future. The move to make that happen would be to pick up the phone and make a deal with the Seattle Seahawks for Earl Thomas.
The contract saga between Thomas and the Seahawks wore on throughout the offseason as the 29-year old safety wants a new long-term deal, but Seattle couldn’t reach an agreement with their Pro-Bowler. Thus, he’s not been quiet about the fact that he wants to be somewhere that will respect him and his future in the league, though it hasn’t affected him playing or his performance on the field.
Acquiring Thomas would undoubtedly be costly for the Falcons. The Seahawks have reportedly been in talks with numerous teams already about a potential trade and have turned down quality offers. Put simply, it might take even more than a second-round pick to land Thomas, which is costly in itself. When you then factor in needing to sign him to an extension, it becomes even more expensive.
Having said that, Thomas isn’t a player on the decline that is wanting a rich new deal. Yes, he’s at an age where a decline may be looming, but he’s not there yet. On the field, he’s still playing like an All-Pro caliber player. Thus, the notion of bringing him into this reeling Falcons defense is enticing.
This isn’t to say that trading for Thomas is a must for the Atlanta Falcons. There are other options out there. However, if this is a team that truly believes they are Super Bowl caliber, they could try to swing for the fences. Trading for Thomas would be that, without question, should they choose to look that way. Thus, it must be considered at the very least.