Week 14 won’t define the Jets’ 2020 season. Not by a longshot. Sitting at 0-12, the Jets are thinking more about their future than their past and present.
But on Sunday, they’ll play a piece of their past when they face Jamal Adams and the Seahawks. The Jets traded Adams – along with a 2022 fourth-round pick – to Seattle this past summer after the safety spent the entire offseason demanding either a trade or a top-dollar contract. Adams got what he wanted and the Jets received two first-round picks, a third-round pick and safety Bradley McDougald.
While Joe Douglas won’t know if his return on Adams was worth giving up one of the best safeties in the league for years, the Seahawks haven’t seen nearly as many benefits as they thought Adams would bring to the defense. Adams looks every bit as good as advertised but hasn’t proven to be a game-wrecking player, yet. That’s reflected in Seattle’s poor defensive numbers, especially in the secondary.
Seattle allows the 31st-most yards in the league and the 22nd-most points through 13 weeks. The secondary ranks 32nd in passing yards allowed but rank sixth in passes defended.
Individually, however, Adams is having a career year despite some injuries.
Pete Carroll learned from watching Adams’ usage in New York and played him all over the field this season. Adams has especially been great as a pass rusher, again, and leads the Seahawks with a career-high 7.5 sacks in just eight games. That ranks first among defensive backs and is tied for 11th among all defenders. He’s half a sack away from tying Adrian Wilson’s NFL record for sacks by a defensive back. Adams has also tallied 77 blitzes, 20 pressures and 13 quarterback hits with 58 combined tackles.
Things haven’t been all roses for Adams in the Pacific Northwest, though.
He battled shoulder and groin injuries earlier this season and missed four games. Adams also whiffed on a few big plays this year, including this game-winning Rams’ touchdown in a Week 10 loss and a missed tackle on this 60-yard run by Wayne Gallman in the Seahawks’ Week 13 loss to the Giants.
Adams has also been abysmal in coverage. Adams’ Pro Football Focus coverage grade sits at 50.2 this season – his lowest since his rookie season. He was never the best coverage safety in New York, but his average coverage grade the past two seasons was 88.55. Adams also hasn’t recorded an interception yet, something he only did twice in his previous three seasons.
Through 13 weeks, though, Carroll remains “ecstatic” about Adams’ presence in Seattle.
“He’s been everything we could have hoped for at this point and he’s going to keep getting better,” Carroll said this week, per Pro Football Talk. “He’s a fantastic player. I’m thrilled about the trade.”
Adams is playing at a high level now, but Seattle will need to focus on his future soon. Adams still has another season left on his rookie contract after the Jets picked up his fifth-year option before trading him, but he might want extension negotiations pushed up a year. He wanted a new deal with the Jets last offseason, but Adams said he’d hold off on those demands when he joined the Seahawks.
As for the Jets, there’s a very low likelihood Adams would have affected this defense. New York remains one of the worst overall teams in the league, and Marcus Maye has played admirably in the secondary while rookie safety Ashtyn Davis gets his feet wet. The potential for the draft picks the Jets received for Adams, though, could be far more valuable than what Adams ever brought to the team.
Week 14 won’t be nearly as exciting as it could have been if the Jets were playing for something other than the No. 1 overall pick – and especially because Le’Veon Bell and Gregg Williams won’t be around after jarring with Adams in the offseason. But the reunion between the safety and the team that drafted him could be a contentious one after all the bad blood from this past summer.