Jamal Adams continues to recover from a torn quad that limited him to only one game in 2022. While the Seahawks sound hopeful that he’ll be good to go for the regular season, general manager John Schneider cautioned that the safety may not be ready for training camp.
“He’s working his tail off,” Schneider said during an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show (via Twitter). “We want to be really careful with this. It’s been two years in a row where he’s been banged up now. … We want to be really careful with his progression. So training camp, I’m just not sure. We’ll see where he is when he comes into the OTAs.”
Adams has dealt with a number of injuries since the Seahawks acquired him from the Jets back in 2020. He still earned a second-team All-Pro nod during his first season in Seattle despite missing four games. His 2021 season then ended early when he suffered a torn labrum, and his 2022 campaign was wiped out thanks to the torn quad.
As a result, it’s not too surprising that both Adams and the organization are proceeding with caution. Adams still has three years remaining on the record-breaking four-year, $72MM deal he signed with the Seahawks in 2021, although the front office does have some flexibility to get out of the deal next offseason.
As a result of that hefty commitment, Adams’ continued injuries, and the organization’s acquisition of Julian Love, there were some pundits who wondered if Seattle could look to move on from the star defensive back. However, Pete Carroll was quick to dismiss the notion that Adams, Love, and Quandre Diggs couldn’t coexist.
“I know there’s some conversation that what we did with Julian, does that have some impact on Jamal or Quandre — it doesn’t,” Carroll said back in March (via ESPN’s Brady Henderson). “We have a clear thought of what we’re going to do with our guys and how we want to play them and we feel very fortunate to have all our guys.”
Jamal Adams is not here to drop back in coverage. He is going to play a lot closer to the line and thump people.
But regardless of his size, playing closer to the line to “thump people” will undoubtedly lead to more potential for injuries (going up against bigger men consistently blocking him).
So…either let him do what he does best and risk injury or have him do something that isn’t his best skill set to keep him on the field not doing what he is best at. We paid the money. Let him do his thing and hope for the best. If he gets hurt going for it, oh well. Better than treating him like glass.
And that is what leads to his injuries..he plays hard and aggressive.