Seahawks vs Jets: Jamal Adams’ revenge, Russell Wilson’s rebound, Chris Carson reemergence
Jamal Adams Week becomes Jamal Adams Day for the Seahawks.
The All-Pro safety gets to face his former team Sunday for the first time since his splashy summer trade, after his months of acrimony with New York.
The Jets (0-12) haven’t won a game since that trade. They come into Lumen Field in rainy Seattle Sunday for the 1:05 p.m. game against the Seahawks (8-4) trying to avoid becoming the second 0-16 team for an NFL entire season in the last dozen years.
The blitzing Adams has 7 1/2 sacks for Seattle. He’s one-half sack short of Adrian Wilson’s league record by a defensive back in a season, set 15 years ago.
“I’d be lying if I said I’m not excited,” he said Friday.
He’s a few more wins from playing in the postseason for the first time in his four-year career.
That’s why coach Pete Carroll is, to use one of his favorite words, jacked over his team trading two first-round draft choice plus veteran Bradley McDougald to the Jets for Adams. McDougald won’t play Sunday; the free-agent-to-be is on injured reserve after only seven games for New York.
“Shoot, ecstatic. Ecstatic about it,” Carroll said this week. “He’s been everything we could hope for at this point and he’s going to keep getting better. ...He’s a fantastic player.
“I’m thrilled about the trade.”
But Adams doesn’t get to face his former defensive coordinator who said he was likely to be “bored” in Seattle’s relatively vanilla schemes. The Jets fired Gregg Williams after his all-out blitz on the Raiders’ final, winning touchdown pass last weekend.
Adams is one of multiple key players for this Seahawks-Jets came, Seattle’s attempt to rebound from its face-plant at home last weekend against the Giants.
“We are ready to roll this weekend,” Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson said.
2. Adams won’t be the only Seahawk coming after Jets quarterback Sam Darnold.
Carroll said end Carlos Dunlap is far healthier this week than last coming off a sprained foot.
But the two-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Seattle acquired from Cincinnati in late October did not practice this past week. He was walking into the team facility, away from his teammates, as practice began Friday. He is questionable to play, and his status will be Sunday’s main pregame news.
He got 23 situational snaps last week, mainly on third downs in Seattle’s loss to the Giants. In five games, Dunlap has made tackles Jarran Reed and Poona Ford bigger pass-rushing threats. The Seahawks have gone from near the bottom in the NFL in sacks before Dunlap to its fifth-most.
Darnold has been sacked 25 times in 167 drop backs. The 33 sacks the Jets have allowed are fifth-most in the league.
For two years in practices with New York, Adams had to avoid the third-overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft because Darnold was always wearing a no-contact jersey, common for all quarterbacks in the league.
“I finally get after Sam a little bit. One of my guys, man,” Adams said. “I have a lot of respect for Sam. Just to face him, and he doesn’t have a red jersey on, because I’m kind of used to that...it’s going to be fun, man.
“I’m excited to get out there.”
3. Wilson has been holding onto the ball too long, creating more sacks than his banged-up, makeshift offensive line deserves against it. Wilson caused three of the five sacks the Giants got on him last week, for 31 of the season-high 47 yards lost. That’s huge in the tight games Seattle almost always plays.
Wilson’s been sacked 40 times this season. That’s the third-most in the NFL. Carroll and play caller Brian Schottenheimer have stressed to Wilson this week the need to throw the ball, even away, rather than consistently seek to extend them for big plays that have rarely been there recently.
“It starts with me,” Wilson said.
It always does.
4. The Jets have the league’s third-highest blitz rate, at 40.5% of snaps. But that was with the now-fired Williams calling the defense.
Carroll says a challenge Sunday is the Seahawks won’t really know until after the game begins how interim defensive coordinator Frank Bush, a former player under Carroll at North Carolina State, will have New York playing on Sunday.
5. Whether the Jets blitz or not, Quinnen Williams is still an issue for the Seahawks’ pass protection. The third-overall pick in the 2019 draft leads the Jets with six sacks. He usually plays mostly at right defensive end. That will be opposite the Seahawks’ best blocker, left tackle Duane Brown. The Jets may have Williams moving around more than usual, to avoid Brown and perhaps go against former Jet Brandon Shell.
Shell is returning to start at right tackle after missing the last two games with a high-ankle sprain.
6. It’s past time for Chris Carson to become fully back into the Seahawks’ offense.
Carroll says he wants balance. Yet last week Carson and second running back Carlos Hyde rushed just 15 times while Wilson dropped back to pass 48 times in a 17-12 game.
Carroll says Carson will get “a full load” Sunday, that he’s ready for one in his third game back from a sprained foot. That should mean more runs--but Carroll has been saying that for most of the last two years.
7. And a prediction:
Adams gets his NFL sack record for DBs in a rollicking day, Carson finally, fully rejoins the offense and the Seahawks don’t really need many heroics from Wilson.
Seattle keeps the Jets winless in a 24-13 win, and stay on track with the Rams for their Dec. 27 game to be for the NFC West title.
