The Seattle Seahawks added another player to the mix at safety, promoting former San Francisco 49er Adrian Colbert from the practice squad earlier in the week.
Colbert has long been a target of the Seahawks, developing a relationship with Carroll and general manager John Schneider before the 2017 draft.
Even though the team didn’t take him at the time – likely because they used two early round picks on safeties Lano Hill and Tedric Thompson – the Seahawks never lost track of Colbert and found a way to get him up to their active roster ahead of their Week 4 contest with the Cardinals.
“He’s just trying to break in,” Carroll commented on Friday. “He’s trying to compete and battle. He’s a really explosive player. We’ve seen him for some time, a couple years, that we’ve studied him. We’ve watched him. He’s trying to get back out here and see if he can battle and work his way in with the safety spot.”
Colbert has experience as both a strong safety and a free safety, making him a valuable, versatile backup safety while rookie Marquise Blair continues to adjust to the NFL game.
However, Carroll does have a specific vision in mind for Colbert going forward.
“I particularly like him on the back end playing free safety because he’s got really exceptional range and all of that, that’s where we saw the most of him,” Carroll continued. “But, he has been up in the box, he’s an aggressive attack player so, he can do either. We’re seeing him as a free safety right now.”
Colbert will probably see the majority of his early work on the special teams, but don’t be surprised to see him in the mix for playing time at free safety down the line, particularly if Tedric Thompson continues to struggle.
