This how Seahawks wanted to use Jamal Adams differently in 2021? ‘Yeah this is some of it’
If Jamal Adams re-sets the NFL record for sacks by a defensive back again this season, something is wrong with the Seahawks’ defense.
At least by how Pete Carroll has designed it for 2021.
Last season, when Adams was on the field, Seattle’s rate of blitzing doubled, from 18% to 36%. The star safety was averaging 10 blitzes per game in his debut season for Seattle, after his summer 2020 trade from the New York Jets for two first-round picks. Most of those blitzes were in the first half of last season, when the Seahawks needed him to generate their only consistent pressure on quarterbacks. The defensive line wasn’t producing enough, and Seattle’s defensive backs were under siege.
Adams set a league record for defensive backs with 9 1/2 sacks.
This season, through two games, Adams has blitzed 13 times, according to Pro Football Focus. (Carroll said Adams blitzed seven times last weekend in the team’s home opener; PFF said it was nine.)
So far, at most, Adams is blitzing at 65% of his average from last season. He has zero sacks, zero pressures and hits on opposing quarterbacks.
That’s not why the Seahawks signed Adams this summer to a $70 million contract extension with $38 million guaranteed. He got a record for safeties in the NFL because he’s produced unlike other safeties in the NFL.
“I wouldn’t say they are using me differently. I guess I’m just not getting the opportunities as much,” Adams said. “Not like last year, as far as blitzing.
“But, look, listen: when I’m out there and my number’s called, I’m going to do my job to the best of my ability.
“Like I said, when my number’s called, I’m ready.”
Sunday in the Seahawks’ 33-30 overtime loss to Tennessee, Titans offensive linemen plus 247-pound running back Derrick Henry met Adams near the line of scrimmage and stopped his blitzes. The one time Adams got into the backfield, he careened recklessly off the edge past Henry, all the way to the area of the Titans’ center. That cleared a gaping, cut-back lane. Henry took one step to his left, past overmatched cornerback Tre Flowers, and rumbled 60 yards to the end zone.
Asked about Henry’s touchdown, Adams said: “He scored. I was behind him. We obviously didn’t get him down. He scored. ...
“Sometimes sh** just happens.”
The rest of his day against the Titans, Adams was mostly in coverage. He didn’t have any of the Seahawks’ three sacks of Ryan Tannehill, who threw for 347 of Tennessee’s 532 yards of offense.
Asked if this is how he has envisioned using Adams this season, Carroll said: “Yeah, this is some of it.
“There’s more to do with him, but we’re moving him around a lot. He has a lot of opportunities. I think he rushed about seven times (Sunday in Seattle’s 33-30 overtime loss to Tennessee). We like him working the passing-game aspect when we can. We can’t do it a lot, but we can do it some.”
It’s a balancing act Carroll has sought more of in 2021 than 2020.
Adams was blitzing like he was a new Lawrence Taylor at the start of last season. He had to. He was the only consistent threat to pressure quarterbacks on Seattle’s porous defense.
Then at the end of October, the Seahawks traded for Carlos Dunlap from Cincinnati. The two-time Pro Bowl defensive end revitalized the front four’s pass rush. That allowed Adams to blitz less, cover more. He joined free safety Quandre Diggs more often on the back line of the defense with more two-high coverage.
The Seahawks went from on pace to setting NFL records for passing yards and points allowed in the first half of the 2020 season to at least finishing 31st in the league in pass defense (285 yards allowed per game, ahead of only Atlanta) and 16th in scoring defense (23.6 points per game).
This past offseason the Seahawks re-signed Dunlap and pass rusher Benson Mayowa. They signed Kerry Hyder after his 8 1/2-sack season for San Francisco. They signed former Cardinals first-round pick Robert Nkemdiche. Their aim has been to have a deep stack of ends and pass rushers to get the ball out of opposing quarterbacks’ hands more quickly.
It’s a numbers game Carroll wants to win instead of losing, as the Seahawks did for much of last season. Rush four. Cover foes’ three, four and five wide receivers with seven Seahawks defenders, instead of committing Adams to blitzing so much.
In terms of generating pressure up front without Adams, Carroll’s plan is working so far.
By this time last year, Adams had two of Seattle’s three sacks through two games.
This season, the Seahawks have six sacks through two games. Five of those are by defensive linemen, the other by middle linebacker Bobby Wagner.
It’s helped Seattle’s defensive linemen that they’ve gone against reserve offensive linemen through two games. Indianapolis was without Pro Bowl left tackle Eric Fisher and had All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson hurting in the opener. Tennessee was without left tackle Taylor Lewan, then left guard Roger Saffold got hurt during the game last weekend.
The Seahawks (1-1) play the Vikings (0-2) in Minneapolis on Sunday. All five of Minnesota’s offensive linemen started the team’s 34-33 loss at Arizona last weekend.
Carroll acknowledges he is still learning how to best use Adams in his schemes. And the coach says Adams is still learning how to best fit what Seattle wants to do defensively.
“We’re both learning. He’s learning, too,” Carroll said. “He’s learning how we’re using him and how to take advantage of the opportunities that he’s getting.”
The 70-year-old Carroll has been coaching defenses since Richard Nixon was president. He’s never had a defensive back like Adams, a volatile play maker uniquely skilled at blitzing — and paid so richly for that rare skill.
“He’s really an aggressive player, so he really goes for it,” Carroll said.
But as Henry’s touchdown run past Adams showed, he needs some tempered control to his blitzing.
Adams must resist his urge to do more with the fewer opportunities he’s getting to make hits and sacks this season.
“He has to figure out how to manage that to fit in with his assignments,” Carroll said.
Then the coach hinted of more to come from Adams.
“There’s more stuff to do with him,” Carroll said.
“We haven’t called everything that we have, but he’s going to continue to be a massive part of it and continue to be moved around.”
This story was originally published September 22, 2021 at 7:43 AM.
