What releasing Earl Thomas means for Ravens defensive scheme

Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports Following the news that the Ravens have released Earl Thomas III, it’s necessary to examine what Thomas’ role was on the field.

Sources: The #Ravens are planning to release or trade star S Earl Thomas. Either way, it appears his time in Baltimore is coming to an end.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 23, 2020 Thomas played a true middle third or single high for the most part during his time in Seattle. His duty was to patrol deep between the numbers and prevent plays from getting over his head. While the Ravens and Seahawks run quite different defensive concepts, Baltimore asked Thomas to play a similar role on over half of his defensive snaps in 2019. Thomas…