Jamal Adams ‘rocked’ by season-ending surgery. Seahawks consider...Bradley McDougald?
Jamal Adams isn’t exactly taking his second shoulder surgery in less than a year in stride.
“He’s really rocked by it. Of course,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday.
That was hours after a league source confirmed to The News Tribune Adams needed season-ending surgery to repair torn labrum in his left shoulder. It’s the same one on which he had an operation to repair torn labrum following the 2020 season, the Pro Bowl safety’s debut year with Seattle.
“No, it wasn’t as bad as the last time,” Carroll said.
“We’re all pulling for him to come out, get out of this thing and get back as soon as possible.
“Disappointed for him, as well as us.”
Carroll said the surgery will be Thursday. It will be done by a specialist in Texas.
The 26-year-old Adams left Seattle’s home win over San Francisco on Sunday in the second quarter, after he had played 27 of the Seahawks’ 58 defensive snaps. An equipment man took his helmet from him, as if to keep him from returning to the game. He eventually followed that man and his helmet into the locker room before halftime.
He returned to the sideline during the third quarter, wearing street clothes.
Carroll said Adams was injured on his last tackle of San Francisco game. That came with 3 1/2 minutes left in the second quarter, when Adams came up to stop 49ers receiver Jauan Jennings with a shoulder-first tackle following a catch. Adams got up from that tackle holding his arm.
“Unfortunately, he got hit just the wrong way, and he’s going to have to get fixed up,” Carroll said. “He’s been through this before.”
Carroll said Adams was particularly emotional Tuesday, when he confirmed his season was over. That was after the safety consulted second opinions about needing shoulder surgery. Those opinions agreed with that initial call.
Ryan Neal, normally the team’s nickel, sixth defensive back in obvious passing situations, replaced Adams and played 57% of the defensive snaps against San Francisco. That meant less dime and more nickel defenses in passing situation, with Neal next to Pro Bowl free safety Quandre Diggs and Ugo Amadi the fifth defensive back.
Carroll confirmed Neal will make his sixth career start, and fifth for Adams the last two seasons, Sunday when the Seahawks (4-8) play at the Houston Texans (2-10).
“You hate seeing something like this happen to somebody who works extremely hard at their craft, who gets in everything, who is very passionate,” Neal said of Adams. “To have that happen to him again, it sucks. It’s a big blow to lose a guy like that who means a lot to everybody on the team.
“Unfortunately it’s the second time this has happened, and kind of in similar fashion, which is crazy.
“But for me, it’s just the same thing: just step in, be accountable, be there for the people around me, be there for my team...
“Of course it’s an opportunity for me. But it ain’t even about me. It’s about everybody else, and how can we keep this thing rolling in the direction we’ve got it.”
In August, the Seahawks ended Adams’ “hold-in” of refusing to practice by signing him to a four-year, $70 million contract with $38 million guaranteed. It’s the richest contract in NFL history for a safety.
The first year of that new deal is 2022. It has him under contract with Seattle through the 2025 season, the same season through which coach Carroll is signed with the team.
That’s on top of the expensive price Seattle paid to get Adams on the team before the 2020 season. The Seahawks traded two first-round draft choices plus veteran starter Bradley McDougald to the Jets to acquire Adams, who was coming off an All-Pro season for New York.
“You lose all of the fire that he brings. The explosive plays. The big hits. He’s had a couple picks,” Carroll said. “He’d been doing everything. The only thing is, we haven’t gotten the sacks we got a year ago.”
He had 9 1/2 sacks in his Seattle debut season of 2020. That was when coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. had him blitzing more than 10% of the time and often lining up close to the line of scrimmage, often more like a unique linebacker or edge pass rusher than as a safety.
It worked when Adams got to quarterbacks. But in all the other plays he didn’t, Diggs was left alone as the only deep cover man in a defense that spent much of last season allowing the most passing yards and points in the league.
This season, offenses have schemed protection calls specifically to defend Adams’ blitzes. Carroll and Norton countered that by blitzing him at less than half the rate of Adams blitzed in 2020, and playing about double the pass coverage.
Plus, Carroll and Norton sought to minimize the risk of giving up huge plays by blitzing Adams less. He’s been far more a coverage safety, often in two-deep looks with Diggs. Seattle’s defense overall has blitzed less in 2021, relying on the front four linemen to generate pressure on quarterbacks. That’s often failed, particularly while the team lost eight of its first 11 games.
But Sunday against the 49ers, it worked, including after Adams left the game injured. End Carlos Dunlap got his first sack of the season, for a safety that tied the game at 23 in the third quarter. Dunlap then batted down Jimmy Garoppolo’s fourth-down pass with 18 seconds left to seal Seattle’s win.
As for depth behind Neal, the Seahawks are considering the man they traded to get Adams.
Carroll said the team has talked about possibly signing McDougald. The Tennessee Titans released the 31-year-old veteran during this season. He played in two games with one start for Tennessee.
The Jets released McDougald after he started seven games for them in 2020.
“He’s one of the names that we went through,” Carroll said, “that we’ve talked about.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 2:20 PM.
