As Jamal Adams takes a victory lap online here’s why Seahawks made the unprecedented trade
Jamal Adams continues his Twitter victory lap.
Russell Wilson welcomes his team’s newest All-Pro.
And the Seahawks’ huge move they think keeps them a Super Bowl contender while their $140-million quarterback remains in his prime continues to rock the NFL.
There are go-for-it moves. Then there is what Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider did this past weekend: trading two first-round draft choices plus reliable veteran Bradley McDougald to the New York Jets to acquire the 24-year-old Adams, a two-time Pro Bowl selection and 2019 All-Pro who by multiple measures is the league’s best and most versatile safety.
“My man, honored to be able to go to war with you. Let’s rock!” Adams posted at Wilson on Twitter in response to the QB’s welcome on Twitter.
That was amid a stream of posts in which Adams:
...started an online team chant for giddy Seattle fans with “SEAAAAAAAAA...”
...posted an image of the team’s 12 flag honoring Seahawks fans.
...and traded barbs with now former Jets teammate Le’Veon Bell over leaving. That adds spice to Bell’s and New York’s scheduled game at Adams and Seattle on Dec. 13.
It’s what Adams adds to the Seahawks’ defense that is why he’s now in Seattle—and why the Seahawks gave up so much to get him.
A ‘style that we love’
Adams and returning free safety Quandre Diggs, the former Detroit Lions captain Seattle got in another trade in October, give the Seahawks their best pairing at the back of the defense since Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor were starring through Seattle’s 2013 and ‘14 Super Bowl seasons.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity for us,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll told Peter King in his weekly Football Morning in America column published by NBC Sports.
“Jamal’s a legitimate impact player, in the style that we love.”
The analytical people at Pro Football Focus rate 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.
But Adams is not Chancellor. The Seahawks will likely never have another one of him. Don’t expect Carroll to stick Adams near the line as an extra linebacker against the run, as the Seahawks did with the thumping Chancellor while Thomas exquisitely roamed the rest of the field through 2017.
What Adams provides is the best at what Carroll—a 1970s college defensive back, NFL secondary coach and defensive coordinator—has been employing since Chancellor had to quit football in 2017 because of a neck injury. Adams is a versatile weapon Carroll can use in the middle of the field, off the edge, against tight ends, against slot receivers, against the run—and, yes, in rushing the passer.
Adams had 6 1/2 sacks last season for the Jets. That would have led the Seahawks’ defense in 2019. Only Miami had fewer sacks than Seattle in the NFL last year. That, plus poor coverage from long-gone safety Tedric Thompson failing to replace Thomas early and from cornerback Tre Flowers late in the season—were why Seattle was 27th in pass defense in 2019.
Adams has blitzed 159 times in 30 games the last two seasons, more than five times per game. Expect Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. to blitz more this season with Adams.
Seattle has gone more to interchangeable safeties the last few years, dictated by down and distance and match-ups with what types of receivers are on the field. Diggs and Adams will interchange exactly as Carroll wants. Diggs is as the best the Seahawks have had since Thomas at playing center field and ranging sideline to sideline reading plays. But with Adams next to him this season, Diggs won’t have to cover as much ground on every play. That makes him better for the rest of the defense in front of him.
The cost
All this quality and versatility come at a cost, of course. Adams arrives for the start of training camp Tuesday at a huge premium Carroll and general manager John Schneider have never before paid.
This is the first time the Seahawks have traded two first-round picks for one veteran player. Carroll and Schneider traded first-round choices to get tight end Jimmy Graham from New Orleans before the 2015 season, and to acquire wide receiver Percy Harvin from Minnesota in 2013. Both trades largely failed for Seattle.
Now the Seahawks are doubling that cost. Plus, they are giving the Jets Bradley McDougald. He was one of Seattle’s most dependable tacklers and players on a defense that ranked 26th overall last season.
At that price, the Seahawks must re-sign Adams beyond his contract ending with the 2021 season.
The Seahawks don’t need to do that right now, and there was no NBA-style sign-and-trade agreement that came with acquiring Adams. They can use Adams’ bargain base salary of $825,000 and salary-cap savings of $500,000 compared to McDougald for 2020 to sign a veteran pass rusher they still need, including the still-available Jadeveon Clowney. Or a veteran defensive tackle they usually sign during training camp.
But to make this trade truly work out for the Seahawks Carroll and Schneider must re-sign Adams for 2022 and beyond. They have the team in good cap shape to extend Adams in 2021; Schneider’s preference in his decade as GM has been to re-sign Seattle’s top veterans with one year left on their deals. Franchise cornerstones Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner are locked up past 2021 with new deals signed last year. The team will have $11 million from the expiring contract of longest-tenured Seahawk K.J. Wright coming off its books, as Wright’s contract ends with this season.
The NFL salary cap will go down from $198.2 million this year to no lower than $175 million in 2021, per the league’s agreement Friday with the players’ union on how to share COVID-19 losses from 2020 in-stadium revenue. Seattle has $153.8 million currently committed for 2021. That’s before the inevitable cuts of veterans that happen every year and particularly will next year when the cap goes down for the first time after eight consecutive years of double-digit-millions increases.
Adams, still just 24, is likely to become the NFL’s highest-paid safety at perhaps $16 million or more per year. Expect the Seahawks to make doing that a priority next year.
Yes, they surrendered two first-round picks. That’s huge cost in a league that cherishes top picks to build franchises for the long term. But consider this: Carroll and Schneider, drafting at the bottom of the first round for almost all the last decade, have traded the Seahawks’ first-round draft choice in eight of the last nine drafts. The exception was this year.
And they tried to make it nine years in a row. Schneider said he had a deal with Green Bay to move out of round one again in April. But Miami came in at what Schneider said was the “last minute” and made the Packers a better offer to trade up. Caught, Seattle kept its pick at 27th overall and used it on Texas Tech linebacker Jordyn Brooks.
Carroll and Schneider trade down and out of round one because they almost never have more than 20-some players in any draft rated as first-round talent. The Seahawks expect to be winning again, going to the playoffs again and contending for the Super Bowl again in 2020. So they expect to be own a place in the upper 20s again in coming drafts.
So, Carroll and Schneider figure: since we are likely going to trade down anyway, since success in the draft is a crapshoot and we won’t be able to get a player of Adams’ skill at still a young age in any draft anyway, we’ll consider Adams our first-round pick in 2021 and—they plan—beyond.
That’s why they paid so richly to the Jets this past weekend. In that regard, it does makes sense. But it won’t work for the longer term the Seahawks sacrificed unless they re-sign Adams.
That’s for another year. For 2020, this bold trade shows they indeed are going for it—while the 31-year-old Wilson remains in his prime.
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 9:28 AM.
