The Seahawks took a long-term hit in the secondary on Wednesday, but at the same time they are expecting to add some depth back on offense.

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Third-year free safety Tedric Thompson has been placed on injured reserve by Seattle with a shoulder injury, while veteran tight end Ed Dickson has been designated for return from the IR, where he has been since the beginning of the season following knee surgery in August.

Thompson, 24, has started six games this season for Seattle. Though he has struggled at times this season, Thompson has two important interceptions for the Seahawks in 2019 – the first of which helped seal a big Thursday night win over the defending NFC champion Rams.

Thompson will have surgery to repair a torn labrum, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

“He needs labrum surgery. He’s had a shoulder that’s been bothering him for some time. We’re going to get him fixed up,” Carroll said. “… He’s been really toughing it out for a good while. We’re going to miss him. He’s been an integral part of our stuff. A really good teammate. We love the guy and we hate that he’s not going to get to play, but we’ve got to fix him up.”

Dickson, 32, had three touchdown receptions on 12 receptions (13 targets) in 2018, his first season with Seattle after four seasons with Carolina. He spent the first four years of his career with Baltimore.

The return of Dickson has been expected, and it became much more important for the Seahawks after fellow tight end Will Dissly was lost for the season to an Achilles injury suffered on Oct. 13 against Cleveland.

With a return designation, Dickson is available to practice but still needs to be added to the roster before he can play. Carroll said he doesn’t know yet if Dickson will play Sunday against Tampa Bay.

“He’s been on the walk though field so far. He’s got to get out there,” Carroll said of Dickson. “He hasn’t had one day at practice in months and months. We just need to break him in and see where he is. He was in good enough shape and had returned well enough that we were able to really push him the last three weeks to see if we could get him up to the work level that it would take to be ready so he can just move in and transition smoothly. We’ll find out.”

With Thompson’s placement on IR and Dickson not yet activated, it created an open spot on the active roster, allowing Seattle to add veteran defensive end Dekoda Watson. The 2010 seventh-round pick has 152 tackles and six sacks over nine seasons and most recently played for San Francisco last season.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Thompson missed the Seahawks’ last two games. He missed games in Week 2 and Week 3, not Week 7 and Week 8.

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