It’s become a theme for little-known players to break out in second-year Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald’s defense.
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That was the case when he was Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator in 2023 and defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike broke out for a career-high 13 sacks.
It was the case once again last year when the Seahawks signed cornerback Josh Jobe before the start of the regular season, which came after he had been cut by the Philadelphia Eagles. Jobe went on to become a regular in Seattle’s defense and was re-signed for the 2025 season. He’s now one of the team’s top two corners.
Linebacker Drake Thomas appears to be latest and perhaps most unlikely defender to join that list.
Thomas, who’s undersized for an NFL linebacker at 5 foot 11 and 228 pounds, went undrafted out of North Carolina State in 2023 and played mostly special teams while appearing in 24 games over the past two seasons with the Seahawks. But this year he’s become a key contributor on the defense while grabbing starting a role.
The 25 year old has started the past four games at linebacker for Seattle, racking up 25 tackles, five tackles for loss, five passes defended and two sacks during the stretch. He shared the team lead with nine tackles a week ago when the Seahawks went to Jacksonville and beat the then-4-1 Jaguars. And in Monday night’s win against the Houston Texans, he had a team-high three passes defended while adding two tackles for loss.
The Seahawks’ head coach shared what’s stood out about the undersized linebacker Tuesday during The Mike Macdonald Show with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.
“Just a determined really good football player,” Macdonald said. “He does things like that a big linebacker does. He has power, he has strike, he tackles, he can cover in space and like press into people – where sometimes guys that are a little shorter, sometimes you worry about that, but he does those things. He does those things through his ability and his anticipation. So yeah, it’s pretty cool. It’s pretty awesome.”
Thomas had logged just 37 defensive snaps over two seasons heading into 2025. This year he’s already played 264 defensive snaps, including over 60 in each of the past two games.
The fact that Thomas is around to make that sort of jump is a credit to general manager John Schneider and team scouts, Macdonald said.
When Macdonald was hired in January 2024, Thomas was still recovering from a knee injury that cut his rookie season short, keeping the new coaching staff from getting a chance to see what he was capable of early on. But Schneider and the personnel department were adamant about keeping Thomas around.
“Analytically through like the scouts’ eyes, so to speak, it was all like, ‘This guy’s a good football player, man,’” Macdonald said. “He hadn’t had a chance to get all the reps early with the new coaching staff to kind of prove himself, and they were steadfast in their belief in that he was going to be – that he was a good player.”
Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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