PHOENIX — Only one team is worried about Seattle Seahawks free safety Earl Thomas missing Super Bowl XLIX with a separated shoulder. It’s not his team.

“He comes to walk-through with his mouthpiece in,” defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said Wednesday. “He wants to feel like it is game day. Those are the little things nobody probably knows about. His intensity level doesn’t change.”

The New England Patriots are expecting Thomas and cornerback Richard Sherman, who injured his elbow in the NFC Championship Game, to be on the field with the Seahawks’ No. 1 defense.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady called Thomas “a phenomenal player. He covers a lot of ground. He’s so rangy back there. He’s got great field vision. He does a great job. He’s a very disciplined player in his assignments. He does a great job reading the quarterback. I’m conscious of that. You can’t just look at exactly where you’re going to throw it, just fire it in there and see if he can make the play, because he’s proven time and time again that he can make those plays.

“Kam (Chancellor) is a phenomenal player, too. He is an imposing presence. There are some times that he’s free in the middle of the field and he’s just looking at the quarterback and trying to go in there and blow something up. Those two guys really set the tone.”

The Patriots took to the practice field in Tempe on Wednesday hoping to simulate Thomas’ style of play, which drew comparisons to former Eagles and Broncos safety Brian Dawkins and former Ravens and Jets safety Ed Reed.

“ET (Earl Thomas) in specific, he’s a huge factor for us. He totally is, just by the way he plays,” Quinn said of Thomas’ integral role in the cover-3 scheme that amplifies the role of safeties in the back end of the defense. “He’s such a relentless competitor. You have to go back and look at it, but after he dislocated his shoulder, he came back and hit (Eddie) Lacy as hard as he could with the same shoulder. I think that play sums up his intensity because the naturally thing would be, ‘OK, I’m going to hit this dude with my other shoulder.’ It was just the opposite. It was, ‘I’m going to stay true to who I am.’ He’s such a unique guy. … If 10 is the high, he’s an 11.”

The Patriots are dissecting as much film of the Seahawks’ defensive backfield as they can consume. Repeatedly, the secondary group tagged the “Legion of Boom” is standing out. Especially No. 29, Thomas, the 25-year-old All-Pro safety with cornerback speed who hits like a missile.

Instincts and football acumen are traits the Patriots will not be able to simulate in three full practices in Arizona, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels told The Sports Xchange on Wednesday.

“You’d almost have to tell the (scout team safety) where the play is going to go and then say, ‘All right, go there,'” McDaniels said. “He impacts almost everything you do — running game, passing game, deep throws, short throws. He senses how close the rush is, and then he’s going to go. He sees it. He reads patterns well, senses the rush and he’s willing to take the chance.

“Those are the guys — when they take chances and they’re always right — those are the guys who are the scariest to play against. Earl is a unique guy. He’s very difficult to prepare for. You can tell how intelligent he is because he knows what play is coming a lot of the time and gets an even bigger jump. He’s a violent hitter for a smaller safety, as big a hitter as we’ve played.”

In a twist of irony, McDaniels is partially responsible for Thomas landing with the Seahawks. In the 2009 draft, as coach of the Denver Broncos with final say in personnel matters, McDaniels traded a 2010 first-round pick for an extra pick in the second round in 2009. He spent that pick on cornerback Alphonso Smith, who is out of the NFL after being drafted 37th overall.

The first-rounder in 2010, which turned out to be 14th overall, was used by the Seahawks to select Thomas.

Strong safety Kam Chancellor expects Thomas to have his entire game intact even if his shoulder is not, calling it a “mind over matter” challenge the team believes Thomas will ace.

“The speed that he plays with, his mindset to go after the ball, he’s one of the most respected players around,” Quinn said. “His intensity just does not stop. You feel his focus all the time. Some people can sustain it.

“(Thomas’ shoulder) injury doesn’t even cross my mind. That’s a competitor.”

For the next three days, Thomas is the Seahawks’ problem in the sense that quarterback Russell Wilson will have to solve the talented free safety to come out ahead in Competition Wednesday and Turnover Thursday.

“He’s the best in the league. It makes a difference for me,” Wilson said.

Come Sunday, Thomas plans to be the Patriots’ problem.

“You have to prepare, visualize and understand that your body is not 100 percent,” Thomas said. “At the same time, there’s so much out there.”