How Seahawks finally got Jamal Adams signed: It began with a Pete Carroll call to Mom
The day the Seahawks traded for Jamal Adams, more than a year ago, Pete Carroll picked up the phone.
Of course, he called the All-Pro safety. The coach told Adams all about Seattle’s program and how the do-it-all safety would thrive in the defensive scheme upon arriving from the New York Jets last summer.
But then Carroll made another call. To Michelle Adams.
That call to Mom, July 25, 2020, was the moment Jamal Adams knew he wanted to be a Seahawk long term, beyond his contract ending with this 2021 season.
That was the day Adams’ new contract became a probability rather than possibility.
The now-richest safety in NFL history and his coach both said Tuesday their bond broke an impasse in negotiations and resulted in Adams signing a four-year, $70 million contract extension Tuesday. Adams gets $38 million guaranteed to stay with Seattle through 2025.
“Obviously, just from when Pete called, when the trade happened, him calling me, reaching out, calling my mother, that meant everything to me,” Adams, 25, said after he participated in practice for the first time in this Seahawks training camp.
“It’s the little things like that.
“Our relationship has always been strong. It’s just going to continue to get better.”
It got better over the last five months, particularly during stalled contract talks between Adams and the team the last three weeks.
What changed, what didn’t
Adams reported to Seahawks training camp on time July 28 to avoid NFL-mandated daily fines of $40,000.
He participated in meetings and was on the field for practices. But he wasn’t practicing, and wouldn’t until he got his new contract.
Adams was dug in, hard, on his stance of maximizing guaranteed money. He wanted as much of it at signing as possible in a league where not much beyond the present is guaranteed.
“He stood his ground,” Carroll said. “They were very firm about it. ...It was just a really intense negotiation, obviously more toward the end here.”
The Seahawks were dug in, too, entrenched in their offer of $38 million guaranteed and an average contract value, minus possible incentives, that would not exceed All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner’s $18 million per year. That was a key principle for Seattle. Wagner has been a franchise cornerstone for a decade. Adams has been here a year.
Hence, a stare down.
“That’s why it took five months,” to finalize the deal, Carroll said.
The Carroll-Adams bond that started with the coach’s phone call to Michelle Adams 13 months ago proved stronger than that impasse.
“I’m competin’,” Carroll, the constant professor of Always Compete, said. “I’m using everything that I’ve got to get these things done.
“In terms of how we communicate...we do it with class. We are straight-up. We don’t deal through other avenues and the media to try to get our points across. We work very straight-forward with the people we are dealing with, and in this case we had to really stand our ground.
“When you do that, the relationships become more crucial, you know?”
Carroll said Adams didn’t waver in his belief that the Seahawks would take care of him in his deal.
“What I loved about how this went down: Jamal hung with us the whole time,” Carroll said. “We stayed in communication and (were) clear, and talked our way through it. The emotional part of it, the challenging part of it, the business part of it, we made it through all of that.
“What it means is, yeah, everything I’ve got I’m putting into it. It is a part of it, a big part of it.”
It was to Adams, too.
From the day Seattle traded for him, Carroll, general manager John Schneider and salary-cap executive Matt Thomas made it clear to Adams and his agents, Kevin Conner and Robert Brown of Universal Sports and Entertainment, that the Seahawks intended to sign Adams and make him the richest safety in league history.
“Absolutely. Absolutely. Day one,” Adams said. “They told me.
“They kept their word. And that’s all I could ask for.
“And here we are. Here we are, man.”
Adams said throughout the negotiations, being the NFL’s highest-paid safety — and by plenty, $2.25 million per year above Denver’s Justin Simmons — remained important to him.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Adams said. “I believe in myself. And I believe in what I can do on the football field.
“All I needed was someone to believe in me. And those guys upstairs, they believe in me, and they took a chance.”
Always the plan
It’s true, almost always, in pro sports contract negotiations that all’s well that ends well. That is, when the player signs.
But in Adams’ case, this was always going to be the result. The only matter was, when before the opener Sept. 12 at Indianapolis? Which day in August or early September?
This was always going to happen.
“This is really significant, in that the statement we made a long time ago, when John sought out getting (him), was a big commitment then,” Carroll said. “We did a big commitment in picks (traded to the Jets), and all of that. ...
“This was the plan the whole time, was to go after a great football player, get him in the program, pay what you’ve got to pay to get it done in terms of draft picks, and then knowing that we were going to re-do a contract.
“It took a while to get it done, but it’s over now.”
It’s over, despite multiple, urgent reports Adams would never back off $40 million guaranteed. He did. There were reports that if Adams didn’t back down the Seahawks might play hardball with consecutive franchise-tag years. They wouldn’t. There were reports of Adams considering if it got that that point he’d filed a grievance with an arbitrator over what position he’d get tagged at. All posturing.
It all proved to be what a lot of NFL issues are in the vast time between real games, February to September: manufactured drama.
Or have you forgotten the Russell Wilson Soap Opera from this offseason?
Was Adams preparing and to sit out games this season to stand his ground?
“Man,” Adams said Tuesday through a laugh that said more than the words.
“Hell, no, man. I’m not Boo Boo the Fool. I wasn’t NOT going to take the contract, man.
“So, no. Where I’m from, we’re definitely taking that, man.”
No, Mom didn’t raise no Boo Boo the Fool back in Lewisville, Texas.
Carroll picked the right person to call 13 months ago when he acquired Adams.
“It was funny...she texted me about 12 (midnight) back home in Dallas, and she said my full name,” Jamal Lee Adams said of Mom. “And when my mother says my full name, I think I need to pay attention.
“She gave me a nice little paragraph, and basically just told me that, ‘You don’t have to prove anything else to anybody. You did enough. We’re happy.’”
That was enough for Adams to go into Seahawks headquarters hours later Tuesday morning and sign the offer the Seahawks have had waiting for him.
“Mom, she called twice,” Adams said. “When Mom called and she told me to take the contract, it was a no-brainer. Mama knows best.
“As long as my family is happy, man, and I’m happy, I can come and do what I love to do, that’s all that matters to me, man.
“It’s a block off my shoulders ...I’m part of the family now. So I’m ready to go with some championships.”
Not so fast, Carroll said.
Ramping up
The Seahawks want Adams to ease back into “football shape,” the leg conditioning and body wear and tear from practicing daily during the preseason.
It didn’t look like it Tuesday. Adams was flying around the defense next to Pro Bowl safety partner Quandre Diggs, whose own contract ends after this year. (Adams put a plug in for his friend deserving to get his soon, too).
“He was involved probably more than we thought he would be today,” Carroll said, “and he had fun out there running around, trying to make his calls.
“So we’re off and running.”
.JPG "SeahawksAdamsFootball (3).JPG")
Carroll said there’s no concern from the team Adams is not yet ready to play. It’s only Aug. 17.
Adams played basically with one good arm for the last month of last season. He had surgeries this winter to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder and torn tendons in his fingers. He’s fully recovered from those, his coach said.
“We’ve got, really, a number of weeks to get him ready,” Carroll said. “Whether he gets a chance to play in preseason, that remains (to be seen). That’s not the goal. The goal is just to get him right and get him ready (for the opener).”
Adams professed he’s already there. He bought a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and invested heavily in his health, he said.
“Yeah, a lot better,” he said.
“Going through the injuries definitely took a toll mentally and physically. Tearing both of my tendons in both of my fingers and then having the labrum at the end, and then having the groin before that, it was tough. I never went through anything like that, never missed football games since I have been playing the game of football. I had to learn. I had to learn a lot as far as how to take care of my body even more because I was taking care of my body, but I can go to the next level. And that’s what I did.
“So far it’s been going great. And that’s the plan, just staying healthy.”
And wealthy.
This story was originally published August 17, 2021 at 6:33 PM.
