Josh Jones, from cut 4 times in 2 years to Seahawks starter after having thyroid removed

Cut four times in two years, the newest member of the Seahawks’ changed defense is “reborn.”

He and his coach use that same same word to describe Josh Jones’ transformation from bouncing around the league to new Seahawks starter in a new scheme.

How did it happen?

By removing a body part.

For three years, Jones couldn’t eat. The former second-round draft choice of the Green Bay Packers and Jacksonville Jaguars starter said lifting weights made his legs “feel like noodles.” He constantly lost weight. He was exhausted by simple tasks. His heart raced.

Being what the Packers thought he’d become, a mainstay in an NFL defense? That was next to impossible.

In August 2019 the Packers released him with a non-football illness designation. That was after Jones had learned through offseason blood tests the cause of his crushing weakness and lack of energy: a hyperactive thyroid.

“Nobody knew it,” the 27-year-old safety said this week on the edge of the Seahawks’ indoor practice field. “I didn’t even know where the thyroid was at, at the time.

“Dealing with that, that was a crazy thing, man.”

As described by the Mayo Clinic, the thyroid “is a small, butterfly-shaped gland situated at the base of the front of your neck, just below your Adam’s apple. Hormones produced by the thyroid gland — triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) — have an enormous impact on your health, affecting all aspects of your metabolism. These hormones also influence the control of vital functions, such as body temperature and heart rate.”

Doctors prescribed Jones medication. It didn’t work. After the Packers released him Dallas signed him. He played six games for the Cowboys in 2019 before they cut him, too.

He signed with Jacksonville. He started 13 games in 2020 for the Jaguars at strong safety. In the spring of 2021 they drafted their new starting safety, Andre Cisco, in the third round. The Jaguars then cut Jones.

Meanwhile, his hyperthyroidism continued to drain him. In the spring of 2021 doctors gave him a choice: radiation therapy, or surgically removing the thyroid.

This week he pulled down the collar of his practice jersey. An approximately six-inch, linear, surgical scar across his lower neck showed what he chose.

“For the rest of my life I’m taking hormone pills,” he said.

“I don’t have those symptoms that I had anymore. I feel great, man. I feel the best I’ve ever felt. My weight is phenomenal. I came here at 210 (pounds).”

Jones’ fifth chance

After the surgery, Jones signed with Indianapolis. He played mostly on special teams is six games for the Colts.

During last season Indianapolis became the fourth team in 2 1/2 years to cut him.

The Seahawks signed him for the final four games of last season, after Jamal Adams needed season-ending shoulder surgery.

Jones started Seattle’s final game of last season, at Arizona Jan. 9. He broke up passes. He had 10 tackles. He was all over the Seahawks’ defense in a win.

Jones now calls that game in Arizona his “showcase.”

It was a springboard to where he is now: starting in a new, three-safety setup in Seahawks base defense. Seattle re-signed him this spring to a one-year contract with $1,035,000.

“Yeah, he’s had a very, very obvious camp,” coach Pete Carroll said. “I mean, he’s made plays in the running game, in the passing game. He probably has more picks than anyone. He’s playing all of the spots. We’re able to put him all over the place. He’s shown learning ability fine.

“He’s almost a reborn football player, to me. He had some issues over the years that things didn’t work out. ...We came here and we gave him a clean slate and said ‘Start all over. I don’t care what happened before, we’re starting all over. You have a fresh start here and let’s go.’

“He’s been really important. It’s been a big opportunity for him with Ryan Neal not out there, and he’s taking advantage of that.”

Changing scheme

The way the Seahawks are employing Jones for 2022 exemplifies how and why Carroll has changed Seattle’s defense.

Safeties Jones, Adams and Quandre Diggs are playing together in base defense this summer. The idea is to confuse quarterbacks and offenses by disguising and changing the responsibilities of interchangeable safeties from one snap to the next.

For more than a decade in Seattle, Carroll played a 4-3 base defense with Cover 3 zone, single-high safety coverage and a second safety closer to the line of scrimmage. The whole league knew it. But to use an old football phrase, the Seahawks’ Jimmys and Joes were better than anyone else’s Xs and Os. Seattle’s scheme could be simple because Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril and friends for so good.

The Seahawks had the league’s top-ranked defense, won their first Super Bowl and came 1 yard for winning another.

Now those stars are all gone. Seattle sunk to 31st in the 32-team NFL in defense last season. The team missed the playoffs for the second time in 10 years.

Carroll’s Xs and Os must now be better than the new, unproven Jimmys and Joes.

Hence, three safeties, Jones back with Diggs and Adams nearer the line.

“It makes it harder on offenses and QBs to get a read on what’s going on,” Jones said.

He believes among all else Seattle is doing differently — outside linebackers instead of ends as main pass rushers, defensive tackle Poona Ford as more of an end next to nose tackle Al Woods — the three safeties in the secondary is the most striking difference in the 2022 defense.

“Absolutely,” Jones said.

“I think in the past the defense was kind of, you know, you could key who was the free (safety) and who was the strong. The rotation was obvious, so it was easier for offenses to manipulate,” Jones said.

“As opposed to how we are doing it, you don’t know who is strong and who is free. We don’t have that. So much more versatile.”

For the Seahawks, the plan appears to have Adams as more of the pass rusher he was in his debut season for Seattle in 2020. He set an NFL record for defensive backs with 9 1/2 sacks that season, while blitzing a career-high 98 times in 12 games per Pro Football Reference.

But that left Diggs by himself in deep coverage in the middle of the field. Teams such as New England, Dallas, Buffalo and Arizona all threw for at least 360 yards on Seattle two seasons ago. They hit on huge plays when Adams played up but didn’t get to the quarterback.

Last season Carroll had Adams back with Diggs in more two-high safety coverage to prevent as many huge pass plays. Adams blitzed less than half as many times, a career-low 44 blitzes in 12 games. He had no sacks. The Seahawks finished 31st in the 32-team NFL in yards allowed.

Hence, more changes.

Carroll fired 4-3 defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. He promoted Clint Hurtt from line coach to coordinator for Hurtt’s history with varied, 3-4 schemes. Carroll hired Sean Desai, the former defensive coordinator for Chicago, and secondary coach Karl Scott from the Minnesota Vikings to make the coverages and looks from the defensive backs more varied and difficult for offenses to read.

Now these Seahawks are playing more man to man. They blitz more. Playing three safeties, in theory, gives Seattle more pass-rush options with Adams while maintaining two safeties back deep in pass coverage.

Jones steps up

Ryan Neal was on track to be that third safety for 2022 after making big tackles and plays on the ball on third downs as a extra defensive back in passing situations last season. But Neal has been out since the first days of training camp. He has ligament damage from a high-ankle sprain.

Jones has taken full advantage. He has stood out with his tackling in the preseason games on a defense that has been otherwise terrible at that.

Last weekend against Chicago, Jones came up fast on a Bears quick, hot-read swing pass after the Seahawks fooled quarterback Josh Fields with a fake blitz. Jones dumped the running back immediately for a 2-yard loss on third down in the red zone.

It was one of the few times Seattle got Chicago going backwards while falling behind 24-0 in that eventual 27-11 loss.

“I definitely pride myself in that,” Jones said of his tackling. “That’s one of the things as a defender, first of all, and as a safety you have to be able to do.”

Carroll told Jones he didn’t care how many teams had released him, the issues with his thyroid, none of the past, Jones had a clean slate in Seattle.

“It meant everything,” Jones said. “I mean, for a guy, you look at a coach like that, a championship coach, man, a coach that has so much status in the league, for him to tell you that, man, you just go out there and let it all go, and just take a deep breath and exhale.

“Everything that happened in the past is no longer. A clean slate. That’s legit. That’s my mindset. I’m not going to worry about what happened in the past, what was said, what was done. ...

“They saw something in me. I just had to bring it out and compete, earn my way.”