Jamal Adams: Russell Wilson had similar surgery. ‘No one gives a damn about my finger’
Jamal Adams looked like you asked him to hug his critics.
Someone asked the $70 million safety following the Seahawks’ reviving, 31-7 romp past the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday at Lumen Field how great it’s going to be for Seattle to get Russell Wilson back from missing the last month following the franchise quarterback’s finger surgery — whenever that return may end up being.
““I mean, sh**, you tell me. Damn. I mean, come on, man. Three is three. He’s that guy,” Adams said, referring to Wilson’s jersey number.
“I know what he’s going through, with that finger,” Adams said, chuckling.
“I’m still going through it, obviously. I know exactly what he’s going through.”
Adams had surgery to repair a break and tendon damage in the center of one of his middle finger this past winter. A surgeon inserted a pin into his finger, as one in Los Angeles did with Wilson’s finger on his throwing hand Oct. 8.
Adams’ surgery came after the 2020 season, his first with Seattle, after he played with two broken fingers plus a torn labrum in his shoulder that also required surgery. That was months after the team traded two first-round picks to the New York Jets to get him.
Sunday was the first time Adams said he is still affected by his finger injury and surgery, 10 months after the operation.
Adams on Sunday tied his season high with 10 tackles, which he also had in week three while Seattle gave up 23 consecutive points and lost at Minnesota. The Seahawks again played him mostly off the line of scrimmage deep and coverage. They blitzed Adams only a handful of times at Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Seattle coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. chose to blitz dime defensive back Ryan Neal instead on third downs. Neal had the only sack of Lawrence, and two of the three hits on him.
Neal, Adams and other defensive backs and linebackers often faked blitzes and disguised man and zone coverage in attempts to confuse the rookie QB.
It worked. Lawrence settled mostly for dump-off passes underneath all the coverage for 32 completions for only 238 yards. Jacksonville didn’t score until 1:49 remained in the game, keeping Seattle (3-5) from its first shutout victory since Sept. 27, 2015, 26-0 over Chicago.
But it didn’t work for Adams’ statistics and efforts to affect quarterbacks. He continues to blitz at less than half the 10-plus times per game he blitzed in 2020. He set the NFL record for sacks by a defensive backs with 9 1/2 last year.
This season he has zero sacks, zero quarterback hits and two passes defensed in eight games.
“It’s been tough, obviously,” he said. “In life, there are a lot of tough things that you go through, you just have to figure it out. No one really cares. No one really gives a damn about my finger.
“At the end of the day, I have to figure it out. So I’m out there battling each and every day.”
A lot of people give a damn about Wilson’s finger.
Carroll and the Seahawks don’t know when the quarterback will play again. A league source told The News Tribune last week nothing was new or happening in his fluid recovery.
Carroll said Wilson is ahead of schedule in his recovery. Yet it remains unknown whether Wilson will play Seattle’s next game, Nov. 14 at Green Bay, following the upcoming week’s bye.
The Packers game is the first when Wilson is eligible to come off injured reserve. IR players must miss at least three games, per NFL rules. Sunday’s win over Jacksonville was the third game Wilson missed.
Wilson again came out early for pregame warm-ups. For the third straight week he pantomimed plays, hand-offs and drop backs to pass, doing everything but throwing. He was wearing what appeared to be a new, black wrap on his hand, over both his repaired middle finger and the index finger on his throwing hand.
Before the game Sunday Wilson posted pictures on his Twitter account of his finger and his ongoing recovery.
He wrote: “The old has gone... The New has come! #Renewed”
The pictures revealed what Carroll said Friday, that Wilson’s stitches were out. No word if the pin a surgeon put in his finger to stabilize it is out, too.
“He’s pushing. He’s doing everything he can to get back on the field with us,” Adams said. “Until then, we have to hold it down.”
Until then, he said he also knows what Wilson is enduring to get right.
“I know what he’s going through. A pin in the finger. It’s tough, man,” Adams said. “You kind of take your fingers and your little movements for granted at times.
“It’s taught me a lot, so I know exactly what he’s going through.
“Mentally, he’s on another level. He’s doing a phenomenal job. I can’t wait to get him back out there.”
Adams specified where Wilson tore his tendon, higher in the finger, near the tip, compared to where Adams did last year.
The safety sounded like a surgeon. That’s how well-versed Adams has become in painful, altered fingers like the one that has changed the Seahawks’ season with Wilson.
“He tore the mallet, so he’s on the top of his finger. I tore the middle part,” Adams said. “So, my finger looks like that.”
He raised his hand to show a malformed digit that looked like it has been smashed flat.
“I can’t bend my finger. He can bend the top portion,” Adams said.
“At the end of the day, I’m a savage. I do this. I figure it out.
“He’ll be back. When he gets back, I just can’t wait to see the show, and witness it. Looking forward to it.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2021 at 7:16 PM.
