Blitzing, fiery Jamal Adams has an answer for those downgrading his Seahawks pass coverage
Jamal Adams is the most fiery Seahawk. He probably steams in an ice bath.
But want to see the All-Pro safety really get hot? Ask him about how he believes his pass coverage has been in his debut season for Seattle.
“Yeah,” he said this week, percolating. “I’ve had one bad play, versus Diggs. Stefon Diggs, versus the Bills.”
That was early in the game he and his defense got thrown at and all over in a 44-34 loss at Buffalo Nov. 8.
“And I went from being one of the guys that can take away all the tight ends to all of a sudden can’t cover,” he said, scoffing.
“So, to answer your question, brother, you know, I’m fine. I mean, I’m doing fine in coverage.”
The Seahawks did not trade two first-round draft choices plus veteran starter Bradley McDougald to the New York Jets this summer to get Adams to shut down opposing receivers in vice-like pass coverage. The 24-year-old strong safety is an All-Pro because of his unique mix of skills blitzing quarterbacks, making plays up and down the line of scrimmage and tackling like a linebacker on running plays.
His blitzing is his main attraction for Seattle. Its defense has struggled for the last two seasons to consistently generate a productive pass rush with its front four defensive linemen.
Adams had 2 1/2 sacks blitzing in his first three Seahawks games this season, before he missed a month with a strained groin. He remained the team’s co-leader in sacks for half a season, even though he had only played in fewer than three full games.
Yet Pro Football Focus thinks Adams is far below NFL standard covering receivers. Everyone thinks the Seahawks rank last in total defense and pass defense. That’s certifiable, by the league’s official statistics.
Pro Football Focus is an analytics service that attempts to quantify objectively performance on the field coaches and scouts subjectively assess. It rates every player on production for every play in every game.
Players, particularly ones rated lowly by the service, and coaches who trust their eyes over numbers can’t stand PFF. Offensive linemen and defensive backs, in particular, despise the service. They criticize the 50 or so PFF staffers who give player ratings for not possibly being able to know a team’s specific offensive-line assignments—or whether a defensive back is in man-to-man, zone, or combination or hand-off coverage—on any given play. Not from behind a computer screen.
Pro Football Focus gained added validity in 2014 when former NFL wide receiver Cris Colliinsworth, the NBC Sunday Night Football game analyst, bought a majority interest in the analytics service. A growing number of teams, including the Seahawks, have increasingly in the last decade used its ratings and analytical approach, most often as a blend with more traditional evaluations by personnel staff.
PFF has Adams with a rating of 57 on a scale of 0-100 in pass coverage this season. It says Adams has allowed 16 receptions in 19 targets. Last week Adams was ranked 49th by Pro Football Focus among NFL safeties. He was on pace to finish with a PFF pass-coverage rating of 68, which would be the lowest of his four-year career.
“I haven’t been in a lot of man (coverage) situations, believe it or not,” Adams said.
“But, you know, things can change. And I’m looking forward to those things changing.”
His next chance is Monday night, when the Seahawks (7-3) play the Eagles (3-6-1) in Philadelphia.
Seattle is seeking to equal its revival on defense last week in a pivotal win over the Cardinals. The Seahawks allowed a season-low 21 points and held Arizona to 314 yards. That was 205 yards fewer than Kyler Murray and the Cardinals rolled up on the Seahawks defense in Arizona’s home win last month.
The Seahawks did more varied and disguised blitzing with and without Adams last week. It was more than they’ve done in years under coach Pete Carroll. They also got two sacks from end Carlos Dunlap, including the winning one of Murray on fourth down with 35 seconds left.
All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner has been the middle man in Carroll’s defense since his rookie season of 2012. He says the difference in the 2020 Seattle defense is obvious. And by necessity, in part playing to Adams’ strengths.
“I would say, blitzing more,” Wagner said. “When I first got here we weren’t really a blitzing team, and even over the years weren’t really a blessing team. We’ve had so many different great pass rushers (on the line) that a lot of the times those guys didn’t really want to blitz because they wanted to do their pass-rush moves. So you allowed them to do their pass-rush moves.
“Over time, we’ve just been blitzing more. A lot of the blitzes that you’ve seen, we’ve had. We’re just hadn’t run them.”
Dunlap has pass-rush moves on the D-line. He’s gotten 3 1/2 sacks in three games since he arrived in a trade from Cincinnati. His emergence is allowing Seattle to rely less exclusively on Adams blitzing to generate a pass rush. That should put him in better position to cover receivers down the middle of the field more often, and more effectively.
Blitzing less than all the time could also allow Adams to be healthier than he’s been over the first 11 weeks of this season. After the strained groin caused him to miss October, he injured his shoulder on the first play of the Seahawks’ loss at the Los Angeles Rams two games ago.
“I’ve been playing with one arm for the past two weeks,” Adams said. “It’s OK. You know, whatever it takes.”
He said the injury came “in the Rams game, first play of the game. Was playing terrible technique and got slammed. Very embarrassing, but, you know, it happens. ...
“But it’s getting better. And that’s the scary part. So watch out.”
This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 10:52 AM.
