Jamal Adams passes physical, comes off PUP. Yet signs are he won’t play Seahawks opener
Jamal Adams is off the physically-unable-to-perform list.
So why is he not physically performing fully at practice?
The Seahawks announced Thursday morning their $70 million safety passed his physical examination. That is the requirement to come off the PUP list he’s been on since the start of training camp July 26.
But when the team began its light practice Thursday afternoon for its final preseason game Saturday at Green Bay, Adams walked off the field and back into the team facility.
Instead of practicing with his teammates he was again in the weight room with a trainer. He did more rehabilitation from the torn quadriceps tendon he got 11 months ago.
He hasn’t practiced or played since that injury in the first half of Seattle’s 2022 season opener, against Denver.
So why come off the PUP list, which makes him eligible to practice for the first time this preseason, yet not practice?
Coach Pete Carroll said again Thursday the team’s incremental plan with Adams is for him to first participate in morning walk-through practices. Those are in no helmets indoors each day, focusing on scheme and assignments in a jog pace. Players on PUP have to come off it to even do walkthroughs, per NFL rules.
“It’s a good step for him, a good stage, as he’s preparing to get back,” Carroll said. “We look at these weeks, they go by quickly, now. If he had continued to stay on PUP (past Tuesday into the regular season) he wouldn’t be able to do any of our football work.”
Carroll has brought linebacker Jordyn Brooks and cornerback Riq Woolen back from months-long absences and the PUP list incrementally like this. Brooks and Woolen recently began practicing fully after spending time in morning walkthrough practices only.
“He’ll jump into the routine like we’ve been doing with our guys about walkthroughs. He’ll start to break the huddle with the fellas, get the calls, get aligned and get his mind rolling in that direction. There’s no other way to do it.”
Carroll said Adams is still trying to get his measurable strength numbers up to his pre-injury maximums.
“We are going to do it perfectly,” Carroll said. “We are going to wait it out and make sure that we really take care of him.”
Carroll said once Adams shows no setbacks from a series of walk-throughs, the team will progress him to practicing outside, likely not fully, at first.
This process could take weeks. It’s no sure thing Adams will be on the active roster to begin the regular season, or play in Seattle’s opener Sept. 10 against the Los Angeles Rams.
Asked if he or the Seahawks feel any pressure to get Adams ready to play in week one, Carroll shook his head sideways.
“That pressure does not exist. I don’t feel that,” Carroll said. “We are working with him and the docs and the trainers and all of that. That’s what’s important to me.
“I don’t care when it is, when he gets back. I just want him to feel right, and confident, and believe — that he believes — in the process that got him there.
“We are not going to rush him, at all.”
The Seahawks must trim their 90-man roster to 53 by Tuesday’s league deadline. They may not fully know how close Adams is to returning to full practicing by Tuesday.
If they determine between now and Tuesday Adams probably won’t be playing until, say, October, the Seahawks could put Adams on injured reserve — after he’s on the original 53-man roster. That would mean he’d initially take up a spot and be out a minimum of six weeks to begin the season.
More likely, if they deem between now and Tuesday Adams will be ready to play sooner than mid-October the Seahawks could put Adams on the initial active roster for the regular season. Then they would use the first couple weeks of the regular season to ramp up Adams’ participation in practices to play in games after week one.
This story was originally published August 24, 2023 at 1:01 PM.
