Jamal Adams was not ready for primetime

This is not a Winners and Losers column. I’ll make this brief.

Last season I wrote this immediately after the Seattle Seahawks traded for Jamal Adams.

We knew that Adams would cost quite a bit to acquire but I’m still shocked that the Seahawks even did this. That is a ton of draft capital they’ve given up, even for someone as good as Adams. If this trade works, then Seattle has a potentially fantastic safety trio of Adams, Quandre Diggs, and Marquise Blair. If it backfires… this is the type of trade that could be the undoing of John Schneider and Pete Carroll. It’s a “win now” trade in ways that we’ve not really seen out of Seattle, even by their shock offseason trade standards.

Well I’ve hit that point that I hold a negative approval rating of both the coach and the general manager. I’m of the opinion that Jamal Adams has not been terrible or a net negative in terms of on-field performance. He arguably had his best game of this young season a few days ago against the San Francisco 49ers.

Against the Los Angeles Rams, Adams was arguably the worst player on the field. He was beaten for a touchdown by TE Tyler Higbee and on the drive prior, the game-changing play (other than the Russell Wilson finger injury) was him unable to make a play on Matthew Stafford’s deep pass to DeSean Jackson. What should’ve been a pass breakup even with the underthrow turned into a 68-yard gain on 3rd and long as part of a 96-yard touchdown drive.

Adams is credited with one tackle for loss but otherwise he had no pressures, no QB hits, no sacks, and two glaringly bad plays. He had more but I don’t have time to rewind and look through them because he had his share of missed tackles and bad run pursuits.

It’s not Adams’ fault that Seattle pushed all their chips in for a player they barely know how to utilize even though it’s his second season. He is not worth two first-round picks and this is why the gamble was questionable to begin with. Now he’s the NFL’s highest paid safety and they really had no choice given what they did to acquire him.

That was such an awful showing on an already awful defense, and while Jamal has got to be better, the two people who need to be under heavier scrutiny are Pete and John.