Jamal Adams’ Seahawks career hasn’t gone as planned, and his contract looms large

RENTON, Wash. – Seahawks safety Jamal Adams has attracted a lot of attention in recent days for his social-media presence, and his no-apologies response to some of the reaction it generated.

All of that might mask that the origin of the controversy was a response to Adams allowing the winning touchdown in the Seahawks’ 41-35 loss at Dallas on Nov. 30 – a 12-yard pass from Dak Prescott to tight end Jake Ferguson.

It was a play that, to many, served as the latest example of Adams’ Seahawks career not turning out as anticipated.

The 28-year-old Adams was acquired to much fanfare in July 2020 – a trade with the New York Jets in which the Seahawks gave up first-round picks in 2021 and 2022, as well as a third-round pick and safety Bradley McDougald (Seattle got back a fourth-round pick and used it on Coby Bryant).

It started out fine as Adams set an NFL record for a defensive back with 9.5 sacks in 2020 as the Seahawks went 12-4 and won the NFC West.

The Seahawks doubled down on their investment in Adams in the summer of 2021, signing him to a four-year contract worth up to $72 million that made him the highest-paid safety in NFL history at the time, and remains the third highest for any safety.

Since then, little has gone to plan.

Adams battled injuries in 2021 that limited him to 12 games and forced him to have offseason shoulder surgery. He battled renewed attention from opponents and didn’t have a single sack.

Then came the fateful opener of the 2022 season against Denver when Adams suffered a torn quad muscle after just 15 snaps.

He missed the rest of 2022 and the first four games of this season before returning, but he had to sit out the Rams game on Nov. 19 with the knee still bothering him.

That he’s fighting through the injuries had Adams painting a bright picture of his play this season – probably a better one than some fans might have expected.

“I think I’m doing pretty good, man,” Adams said. “I came off a torn quad. I was in a straight brace for probably about 20-plus weeks, wasn’t able to walk, wasn’t able to do anything. So just getting back into the flow of things after missing a year of football. I’m doing OK.”

Adams acknowledged, “there’s a lot of things that I can correct” but noted the knee will be bothering him the rest of this year, saying that when he is “fully, fully healthy, which will be next year, (then) we’ll change those things.”

Carroll, as might be expected, given his historically optimistic take on just about everything, seemed to agree.

“He looked the best he’s looked all year,: Carroll said of Adams’ performance against Dallas. “He moved well. I talked to him about it, and he came out of the game feeling better than he has. … He has not been able to practice regularly throughout this time, but he looked quick, he looked light on his feet, and I was really happy for him that he could take a step forward. It’s better than what he’s looked.”

His grade from Pro Football Focus of 64.7 is right in line with his marks from the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Despite his 9.5 sacks, he had a 64.2 grade in 2020 because of a 53.1 coverage grade. He had a 60.1 grade in 2021.

His grade this season also ranks middle of the pack – 43rd of 88 safeties. While PFF grades are far from gospel, Adams’ marks seem to reflect the general opinion of his play.

Especially perplexing is the lack of sacks.

Adams’ 9.5 sacks in 2020 made him one of the more interesting defensive weapons in the NFL that season. It helped spur a late-season defensive turnaround – the Seahawks allowed 17 points or fewer in five straight games on their way to winning more games than they have in all but two other seasons.

Adams doesn’t have a sack since a win over Washington on Dec. 20, 2020, a span of 24 games, including all eight this year.

According to PFF, Adams has been used in a pass-rush role on just 25 of 464 snaps (compared to 104 of 784 in 2020).

He has no sacks and just one QB hit, though he also deflected a pass off his helmet late in the Cleveland game for an interception that allowed the Seahawks to rally for the win.

Asked about Adams’ use as a rusher, defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt noted that opponents often account for the possibility that Adams could rush the passer, which helps open things up for others even if Adams drops back into coverage.

“You’re kind of finding your spots of when you can go and when you can do that,” Hurtt said. “The thing is, when he is there, whether blitzing them or not, there (are) a lot of protections that go his way because he brings a lot of attention to him because of his ability to blitz and win one-on-ones, and things of that nature.

“But in turn, that helps other guys become available, too, when you do send them. So sometimes it’s finding the right opportunities and time to do that. He can still have an impact on the game if he’s not blitzing because of the attention that he can draw to himself because of his reputation and resume.”

Is that worth being paid more than any safety in the league other than the Chargers’ Derwin James ($19 million) and Pittsburgh’s Minkah Fitzpatrick ($18.247 million)?

That’s a question the Seahawks may have to answer after the season.

In a move that caught some by surprise, in September the team restructured Adams’ contract to convert $9.92 million of his $11 million base salary for this season into a bonus.

That allowed them to spread the cap hit of that salary over the remaining three years of his contract, creating $6.61 million in cap space for the rest of the 2023 season.

The restructure added $3.3 million to Adams’ cap hits for each of the 2024 and 2025 seasons; it’s now $26.9 million in 2024. It also increased the dead-cap hit for the 2024 season – meaning, cap space that would be taken up if Adams is no longer with the team – to $20.8 million, while saving $6.1 million.

That hefty cap hit would make it more costly for the Seahawks to cut Adams after the season. They could designate him as a post-June 1 release, and the dead-cap hit would be cut in half, spread over 2024 and 2025. That would also save $16.5 million against the 2024 cap, though that money couldn’t be used until after June 1.

The dead-cap money and the Seahawks’ investment would seem to point to Adams likely remaining part of the team’s future.

But what happens the rest of this year could tell a lot.