Two good Seahawks reasons they aren’t shopping at safety after Jamal Adams’ latest injury
Though no one from the Seahawks is confirming it, signs are pointing to Jamal Adams missing much of this season, if not all of it.
The star safety is away getting multiple medical opinions from team and outside doctors on his knee and quadriceps injury to determine if and when he needs surgery, coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday.
“We’re going to give him time to do it right and have his mind really clear on what’s the next step,” Carroll said.
“It is really frustrating for him.”
Adams was coming back from shoulder and finger surgeries the last two seasons. He was upset inside the Seahawks’ locker room Monday night moments after he got hurt again, in the second quarter of the team’s opening-game win over Denver. He was carted from the bench to the locker room.
Adams had his mother and father at his side in the locker room during the game. He knew then the injury to his quadriceps tendon and knee he got blitzing into Russell Wilson in the second quarter Monday is going to keep him out a while.
“I know just going into halftime seeing him down and him hurt really hurt us as a team,” wide receiver DK Metcalf said. “Because for a guy like that who’s battled injuries in the past, and for another injury to come back up, you’ve really just got to pray for him and up that his mental is good, overall.
“Like I told him, man, it’s bigger plans for him, past this season. He’s going to overcome this just like he’s overcome everything else in the past. And he’s going to come out a stronger person, and he’s going to share his story of his struggles to help another person down the line who may be dealing with the same thing in their career.”
That doesn’t sound good for Adams playing again this season.
Josh Jones, Ryan Neal up next
Yet the Seahawks aren’t likely to sign a veteran to fill in for Adams next to Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs.
They already love who they have, two guys who have endured getting cut eight times, combined. They had each thought of quitting the sport each of the last two years.
Josh Jones will move up from third safety. He will start with Diggs Sunday when Seattle plays its NFC West-rival San Francisco 49ers (0-1) in Santa Clara, California.
It’s a heady jump for Jones from almost retiring just four months ago.
The former Green Bay second-round pick who turns 28 next week was contemplating quitting football this spring. He’d been cut by four teams — the Packers, Cowboys, Jaguars and Colts — in two years.
“I was just fed up, man,” Jones said Wednesday.
A second heart-to-heart talk with Carroll in three months, in April, got Jones to sign back with Seattle instead, following the four games he played with the Seahawks to end last season.
Last month, Jones told The News Tribune he attributed being in the best shape of his life and feeling stronger at 210 pounds than he ever has to surgeons removing his previously hyperactive thyroid.
“I’m just grateful that I just didn’t pull the plug on myself and just call it quits, man,” Jones said, just before walking onto the practice field as Seattle’s new starting safety. “I’m just thankful for that.
“And I’m thankful for this team, man, just believing in me.”
Ryan Neal now gets a role again in the defense with Adams out again. Neal was a key contributor on third downs as a sixth, “dime” defensive back last season. He became the injury fill-in starter for Adams to end last year.
He almost quit football, too, in 2020 — after also getting cut four times, including by the Seahawks.
One of Neal’s best games last season was at San Francisco, in early October 2021. Neal made four stops on third downs as a dime back that day against the 49ers. He also knocked Niners quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo out of that game with a hit. Trey Lance entered for his first extended play of his NFL career that day last season. He completed 9 of 18 passes with two touchdown throws and ran for 41 yards, but the Seahawks won 28-21.
“We have so much confidence in Josh and Ryan,” Seahawks defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt said.
The Seahawks have been trying to find a way to play Neal early this season, now that he’s back from a high-ankle sprain he got in early August — but not at the expense of Jones. Jones’ strong training camp earned him this starting chance.
“Josh has done nothing but positive stuff since the day he got here,” Carroll said. “Since then, he’s just kind of taken the next step, then the next step.
“Coming into camp (this summer) he had a great camp. He had the most turnovers. He had the most big plays and big hits of all the guys. You saw him in the rotations already; he was part of the plan.
“Now, he just takes a bigger step forward.”
Changing defensive plans
Carroll, Hurtt and defensive backs coaches Sean Desai and Karl Scott had plans for Jones to be the third safety in a new, more-attacking defensive look for 2022. Jones was to be back in coverage deeper with Diggs with Adams close to the line of scrimmage in position to blitz more, as he did in 2020 when he set an NFL record for defensive backs with 9 1/2 sacks for Seattle.
That was exactly the alignment the Seahawks were in when Adams got hurt midway through the second quarter Monday night. Jones entered to play deep coverage with Diggs. Adams blitzed up the middle untouched into Wilson, who managed to escape the sack by throwing wildly off linemen a few yards away while Adams threw him to the ground.
That plan may be changing since Adams is now out of it. Yet attacking remains the new name of Seattle’s defensive game this season.
Attacking through the line at the snap is how linebacker Uchenna Nwosu blew up two Broncos runs that became lost fumbles at the goal line. Denver had 12 plays from inside the Seattle 9-yard line yet produced zero points on those snaps in the second half. That’s why the Seahawks held on to their 17-16 victory Monday.
With Adams out, the question now for the Seahawks is: How much three safeties will they do with Diggs, Jones and Neal?
Likely not with the same purpose as they were going to with Adams. Neal’s value is in tight coverage and plays on passes in the air, less in blitzing. Neal likely will enter more as a dime defensive back than as in Adams’ near-the-line, pass-rushing role.
“Ryan Neal’s going to play more,” Carroll said. “He’ll be part of what we’re doing. Fortunately he made it back last week from injury. ...
“We love what Ryan brings. And, so, you ask about the position. We are OK. We think we are going to be all right with our guys. We were trying to figure out how we were going to play Ryan anyway, going in (to training camp), before he got hurt.
“So, here we are. We’ll see how it works out.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 5:04 PM.
