As draft begins without them, Seahawks trying to re-sign ‘first-round pick’ Jamal Adams
The rest of the NFL is focused on the draft that’s beginning without them.
The Seahawks are thinking about the first-round pick no one else think they have.
“Our No. 1 pick is Jamal Adams,” coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday.
“And that’s a heck of a pick.”
The way Carroll, general manager John Schneider and the Seahawks see it, their trade of a first- and a third-round draft choices to the New York Jets last summer to acquire the All-Pro safety Adams remains well worth it.
The draft begins Thursday. Seattle doesn’t have a choice in the day’s first and only round. The Seahawks’ only selection in the first three rounds is scheduled to be later in round two, at 56th overall, Friday.
That is, unless Schneider makes his 82nd trade involving a draft choice in the last 12 years and moves down. Then the Seahawks would be sitting out even longer.
They are more than OK with that.
Adams set an NFL record for a defensive backs with 9 1/2 sacks last season. He and the arrival of end Carlos Dunlap in another trade turned what had been a dismal pass rush the previous season into an at-times dominant one for Seattle in 2020.
“He had a really good year leading into getting drafted by us number one,” Carroll said of Adams, “and it would have cost us another number one to get that done, that incredible of a football player we saw last year.
“And we’re really excited about the future, too.”
Adams is entering the final year of his contract Seattle inherited from the Jets. It’s his fifth-year option on his rookie deal, at a fully guaranteed salary of $9.86 million.
The steep price to get Adams in Seattle will only make sense and be prudent for the Seahawks if they can sign him beyond this year.
Schneider, Carroll and Seahawks salary-cap executive Matt Thomas budgeted for Adams’ new deal for 2022 and beyond when they traded for him last July. They knew then that the All-Pro in 2019 and three-time Pro Bowl selection in his first four years in the league would seek to become the NFL’s highest-paid safety after 2021.
The Seahawks’ decision-makers also knew upon getting him it will likely cost Seattle at least $16 million per year to retain Adams. That’s above the average of $14.75 million per season Budda Baker got from the Arizona Cardinals in a new four-year, $59 million contract last year. That reset the market for top safeties.
Wednesday, Schneider made it sound as if the Seahawks were on the way to completing Adams’ new, rich deal to stay with Seattle beyond this year.
The GM was asked if he was still working on an extension for Adams, and if he still views Adams “as a long-term piece to the defense” following the safety’s two postseason surgeries, for broken fingers and a torn labrum in his shoulder.
“Absolutely,” Schneider said. “We’re going to be celebrating Jamal (Thursday) evening (as their ‘first-round pick.’)
“We want him to be a long time, for sure. He’s a great player. We’re glad we made the trade to get him, and he’s going to be a very important part of our future.”
The trade for Adams began a series of deals Seattle made over the last year to acquire veteran starters to upgrade the defense then the offensive line. The Seahawks traded with Cincinnati for two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Dunlap in October. Last month they acquired pass-blocking guard Gabe Jackson from Las Vegas. The Seahawks traded back into the 2020 draft to select now-departed tight end Stephen Sullivan in the seventh round. Those deals plus the Adams trade dropped Seattle’s picks this year from eight.
They have the fewest choices in franchise history for one draft.
“We have an amazing number of draft choices: three,” Schneider deadpanned.
Seattle’s smattering of picks is in rounds two, four and seven. It’s the fewest of the Carroll-Schneider era that began in Seattle in 2010, five picks fewer than their previous era low. It’s the fewest in the NFL since the 2009 Jets.
That was by design.
Last year, Carroll and Schneider saw players opting out of an altered college season because of the coronavirus pandemic. They saw schools and conferences canceling seasons. The league didn’t have the annual scouting combine. NFL teams did not have their normal first-person medical evaluations by the team doctors of prospects, pre-draft visits to team headquarters or other usual first-hand evaluation opportunities for this draft.
So the Seahawks decided if there was ever a year to devalue a draft and focus on adding to the roster with more veterans instead, it was 2021.
“There’s no question it’s been a unique year. It definitely came into the equation,” Schneider said. “It was part of the equation with Jamal last summer as we were reviewing and trying to project. Reviewing the juniors that were going to be seniors and trying to project what the fall was going to be like.
“Working with the Jets, (GM) Joe Douglas, it just became apparent if there was a chance to go for it, this was probably the year to go for it ...
“So when you look at this draft, in particular, we had to ask ourselves what kind of questions are we going to have answered by the time we get to next spring? What’s that going to look like? And things just felt too hazy.”
Carroll hinted the Seahawks are going to make as much or more news signing another veteran during this draft than with the few college prospects they select Friday and Saturday.
When talking about resetting the pass rush by re-signing Dunlap and Benson Mayowa and signing free agent Kerry Hyder from San Francisco, Carroll said: “Those are really positive factors for us, and we’re not done yet. We’re still working it. ...
“And there’s some other stuff coming up you’ll see in the next couple days, too.”
Then they signed former Arizona Cardinals first-round pick Robert Nkemdiche as their latest add to the defensive line Thursday.
Cornerback Richard Sherman was of Thursday afternoon still unsigned and available at a position of need in Seattle. Just sayin’.
It all started with Adams. Thursday night, he’s the Seahawks’ first-round draft choice they don’t actually have this year.
“As you can imagine, a draft pick right now, the No. 1 pick for us now, played for us last year. That’s great,” Carroll said. “And he had a terrific football season, and he’s going to play as a legit starter. It’s an enormous pick that we gained value in.
“I’m just thrilled that Jamal is a part of our team. He’s going to get way better too. He’s going to improve a tremendous amount. That’s going to be really exciting to see how that goes down the road.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 7:23 AM.
