The Seahawks' acquisition of Thomas was not one that garnered a ton of attention prior to the 2023 season. Thomas, an undrafted rookie out of North Carolina State that year, had a strong preseason with the Raiders, but was waived as part of their roster cuts, with the Seahawks claiming him, making Thomas' acquisition one of the hundreds of moves made in the days leading up to the start of the season. Injuries limited Thomas to seven games that season, then in 2024 he was a special teams standout, but played only 37 snaps on defense in 17 games.
This season, however, Thomas used a strong training camp to earn more playing time, starting the season as a backup linebacker while splitting time with starter Tyrice Knight. Eventually, however, Thomas took over the starting job at weakside linebacker, and has fully taken advantage of that opportunity. Despite opening the season in a backup role, Thomas is up to a team-leading eight tackles for loss, all of which have come in the last six games, and he also has 46 tackles, six passes defensed and 3.0 sacks. That combination of tackles for loss, passes defensed and sacks has only been matched by two other players in the league, a pair of standout edge rushers: Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby and Giants outside linebacker Brian Burns.
"I think it's elite preparation," Macdonald said when asked about Thomas' play this season. "It allows him to be decisive in those moments, and when you see it, go let it rip. There's a lot of things that go into a couple of those plays, that are some pre-snap processing, that he's doing at a really high level, and not a lot of people can do that, and it lets him play that fast, so it's really cool."