Win-now Seahawks acquire All-Pro Jamal Adams from Jets for Bradley McDougald, 2 number 1s
True to their coach’s and general manager’s words that “we’re in on everything,” the Seahawks have done it again.
They’ve made another splash just before the season. It’s another move to keep the Seahawks in Super Bowl contention while $140-million quarterback Russell Wilson remains in his prime.
A league source with knowledge of the deal confirmed to The News Tribune Saturday Seattle has acquired All-Pro safety Jamal Adams from the rebuilding New York Jets for safety Bradley McDougald, two first-round draft choices and a third-round pick.
The Seahawks also get a fourth-round choice in the 2022 draft for the 24-year-old Adams, who in three seasons with the Jets has made two Pro Bowls and the 2019 All-Pro team while becoming one of the NFL’s top safeties.
The Seahawks made the deal official later Saturday afternoon:
Adams was the sixth-overall pick by New York in the 2017 draft from LSU. He has two years and $10.7 million in base salary remaining on his contract ($825,000 in 2020 and $9.86 million in 2021). The Seahawks inherit those salaries plus his 2020 salary-cap charge of $3.6 million. That’s relatively inexpensive—at least for now—for an All-Pro at one of the central and vital positions for any defense.
“You have a man on a mission,” Adams typed Saturday in an online hello to Seattle.
The Jets moved Adams all over their defense in the 2017, ‘18 and ‘19 seasons: inside, outside, close to the line of scrimmage off the edge of the tight end. Coach Pete Carroll loves versatile safeties roaming his Seahawks defense in varied roles. He will surely use every bit of Adams’ versatility in Seattle.
Adams had 6 1/2 sacks last season for the Jets. That would have led the Seahawks’ defense in 2019. He’s blitzed 159 times in 30 games the last two seasons, more than five times per game.
The analytical folks at Pro Football Focus rates Adams as one of only two NFL safeties with top-10 grades in tackling on running plays, in pass coverage and in pressuring quarterbacks on blitzes since 2018. The other is the Chargers’ Derwin James.
Adams had made it known this offseason he wanted the Jets to trade him—and that Seattle was one of seven preferred destinations.
The deal comes 11 months after the Seahawks traded for three-time Pro Bowl pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney from Houston at the end of the preseason.
McDougald, who turns 30 in November, was entering the final season of his contract, with a cap charge of $5.4 million this year. He had knee surgery before the 2019 season, then battled through more pain last year. His future beyond 2020 in Seattle was already cloudy after the Seahawks drafted hard-hitting safety Marquise Blair in the second round last year.
So the Seahawks net a savings in cap charge of about $1.8 million for this year in adding Adams and trading McDougald. That could go into the pot to still re-sign Clowney. He remains a free agent awaiting team facilities to open for training camp next week.
McDougald went on Twitter to trumpet his imminent arrival to New York.
And say goodbye to Seattle:
Now Blair will continue to wait, now behind Adams at strong safety with the dynamic Quandre Diggs, 27, entrenched at free safety. Coach Pete Carroll has said this spring Blair will get consideration as a a new, bigger nickel defensive back inside against slot receivers.
Adams comes to Seattle at a steep, high cost—both in top draft choices general manager John Schneider covets and potentially in a new contract beyond 2021, a year that could see a reduction of $23 million in each team’s salary cap because of losses in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Even for a normal year, the Jets are getting a massive haul by NFL trade standards. It’s the first time in team history the Seahawks have traded two first-round draft choices for one veteran player.
But it’s a cost Carroll and Schneider feel is worthy of a Adams-Diggs pairing in the back of the secondary. It should be Seattle’s—and perhaps the NFL’s—best since the Earl Thomas-Kam Chancellor heyday of the 2013 and ‘14 Super Bowl seasons.
Diggs likes the trade:
On Thursday, the New York Daily News reported a “cavernous divide” existed between the Jets and their biggest star, because of comments and stances this offseason by Jets GM Joe Douglas.
“It’s definitely mixed feelings,” Adams told the Daily News this week. “But at the end of the day, my happiness is more important. I know my worth. I’m going to stand on my beliefs. I’m going to stand on who I am as a person. And I’m not ever going to change who I am for somebody who’s judging me. Either you accept me for who I am and you work with me and support me or you don’t. It’s OK if you don’t.”
Adams had said in December he wanted to remain with the Jets. But The Daily News termed Douglas’ communication with his star since then as “curious.” Adams also had what the newspaper called a “eroding” relationship with Jets coach Adam Gase that added to the tension of Adams’ relationship with the team.
“I don’t feel like he’s the right leader for this organization to reach the Promised Land,” Adams told the Daily News. “As a leader, what really bothers me is that he doesn’t have a relationship with everybody in the building.
“At the end of the day, he doesn’t address the team,” Adams added about Gase. “If there’s a problem in the locker room, he lets another coach address the team. If we’re playing s****y and we’re losing, he doesn’t address the entire team as a group at halftime. He’ll walk out of the locker room and let another coach handle it.”
The ultra-engaged Carroll has never been accused of not talking to his Seahawks players, in any circumstance.
Essentially, the Daily News reported Adams just didn’t trust the Jets to take care of him, financially or professionally.
“If they would have just simply said, ‘You know what, Jamal? We’re not going to look to pay you this year, we want to keep adding players,’ I would have respected that more,” Adams said. “I would say, ‘You know what? I respect it. As a man, I get it. I understand it’s a business.’ But for them to tell me that they’re going to pay me and then not send over a proposal after they said that’s what they were going to, that’s where we go wrong. And then for you to ignore me, that’s why I have a problem.”
The Seahawks and Jets just solved Adams’ problem.
This story was originally published July 25, 2020 at 1:47 PM.
