Pete Carroll: Seahawks have considered shutting down pained Jamal Adams for the season
The Seahawks have been considering whether to shut down Jamal Adams for the rest of this season.
But for now, they and their three-time Pro Bowl safety have decided to grind through his ongoing knee pain. He made his season debut Oct. 2 for Seattle at the New York Giants.
As he did not throughout last week, Adams didn’t practice again Wednesday for Seattle’s game Sunday at Tennessee (5-9).
“He’s still in recovery mode. He’s been in recovery mode for months,” coach Pete Carroll said. “He just continues to try to do everything he can possibly do to get back and get right.
“And we’ve just seen it, the rigors of the season, it’s just been taxing, and all. So every day is a day that we have to re-evaluate and get him to the next day.”
Carroll said Adams., who made his season debut Oct. 2 after 13 months of recovery from a torn quadriceps tendon, “couldn’t do more than he’s done.”
“He’s been voracious in his attack on this,” Carroll said. “And then there’s time that we need to quiet him down and try to get him back and get him right.
“So, we’re still in that mode right now. ...It’s just one day at a time.”
The lighter, walk-through practice for the Seahawks (7-7) Wednesday afternoon was less than 48 hours after Adams missed a game for the second time in a month. He was not in the stadium during the Seahawks’ victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at Lumen Field Monday night.
Carroll said Tuesday he believed Adams was home, after the coach and team decided to make Adams inactive for the game. He did not do early pregame warmups before the Seahawks declared him inactive 90 minutes before kickoff.
“It was hard on him. We talked about it, and how he was going to deal with it,” Carroll said Tuesday on his weekly radio show on KIRO AM.
“And he didn’t need to be there.”
Carroll said Wednesday of Adams against the Eagles: “He thought he could play.”
With Adams out, Julian Love was the safety with Quandre Diggs against Philadelphia. Love had two interceptions of Jalen Hurts in the fourth quarter.
For that, the league on Wednesday named Love the NFC defensive player of the week.
The last game Adams played was 10 days ago, at San Francisco. He and three teammates overran the game’s first play, allowing Christian McCaffrey the cut-back lane to run 72 yards to set a second-play touchdown for the 49ers.
In the second quarter, Deebo Samuel ran past Adams for a 54-yard touchdown. That turned Seattle’s 10-7 lead into a deficit. The Seahawks never led again in a 28-16 loss, their fourth consecutive defeat.
Last week Carroll uncharacteristically called out Adams and cornerback Riq Woolen for not playing 49ers favorite plays as Seahawks coaches had instructed and prepared them to.
“I don’t mind mentioning these guys,” Carroll said last week. “They know.”
Carroll and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt benched Woolen Monday night. Mike Jackson started against Philadelphia at right cornerback for Woolen, a rookie Pro Bowl star last season. Woolen played one series late in the first half.
Carroll didn’t answer Wednesday whether Woolen or Jackson will start at Tennessee.
Expected knee issues
Doctors told Adams after his surgery to repair a complicated torn quadriceps tendon in late 2022 and again during his 13-month recovery that a residual effect of the operation and rehabilitation was his knee was likely to be hurting well into 2024.
“I was kind of already told when I did tear my knee that it was going to be a year process as far as getting back out there, getting everything back as far as my explosion, cutting and whatnot,” he said last month, “not having the pain and dealing with the achiness on top of my knee cap.
“I was told that early on. The competitor in me, I was looking at the doctor saying, ‘Nah, I’m going to be all right.’ But he was damn sure.
“He was right,” Adams said. “I’m dealing with it.”
Carroll said earlier this week the Seahawks “need” Adams against Derrick Henry and the rugged, run-first Titans this week. Adams often plays “in the box,” closer to the line of scrimmage, against offenses that run more than the pass-happy NFL average.
Yet signs are the often-injured safety, acquired in July 2020 from the New York Jets for two first-round draft choices, then given a $70 million contract to in 2021, may again be out Sunday. Love with Diggs may be the arrangement at the back of Seattle’s defense in Tennessee.
And it may be Love with Diggs on New Year’s Eve when the Seahawks host Pittsburgh (7-7), and the following week when Seattle ends the regular season at Arizona (3-11).
“It’s really frustrating for him,” Carroll said of Adams. “But he’s battling. He’s doing everything he can.”
The coach was asked if he has thought about shutting down Adams for the remainder of this season.
“It’s been something that we have acknowledged,” Carroll said. “That’s the decision that so far he wants to keep going and driving and see what he can make of it.
“I just support everything where he’s coming from, in every way. So, we are taking it one shot at a time.
“We are figuring it out, together.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2023 at 4:58 PM.
