Jamal Adams is no longer a Jet, but that didn’t stop defensive coordinator Gregg Williams from talking about his former safety turned Seattle Seahawk.
“Jamal may get bored there [in Seattle],” Williams said Thursday. “He had his most productive year here because of how we highlighted the skills he had.”
Williams added that the Seahawks don’t use their safeties like he used Adams in 2019. Williams unlocked Adams’ versatility as a coverage safety and pass rusher. Adams had 6.5 sacks, 13 quarterback hits, 10 tackles for a loss, two forced fumbles and seven pass breakups to go along with 75 combined tackles. He also earned his second consecutive Pro Bowl nod and first All-Pro selection.
Williams isn’t entirely wrong. Though Pete Carroll’s defense has featured formidable secondaries in the past, the safeties rarely sack the quarterback.
Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor – the most recognizable safety tandem during Caroll’s tenure – tallied two combined sacks between 2010 and 2018. Both sacks came from Chancellor. Even Bradley McDougald, whom the Jets acquired in the Adams trade, only totaled half a sack during his three seasons in Seattle. The last Seahawks safety with more than one sack in a season during the Pete Carroll era was Lawyer Milloy in 2010 – Carroll’s first season in Seattle.
Now, this isn’t to say the Seahawks won’t get creative with Adams now that he’s in town. They could rebuild the Legion of Boom with Adams as the centerpiece and have him play the hybrid linebacker-safety role Chancellor played for seven seasons in Seattle. After watching Adams work in 2019, it would be hard for Carroll to reserve Adams as just a coverage safety.
Regardless, the jab from Williams is funny considering Seattle was one of Adams’ preferred destinations and because of how well Adams played in his first year with Williams as his coordinator.
Williams isn’t too worried about losing Adams, either. He’ll work with the players he has, which include newcomers like McDougald and third-round rookie Ashytn Davis, and build around them in a way that accentuates their skills – much like he did with Adams in 2019.
“We’ll still do the same patterns of things,” Williams said. “We’ll still do a lot of the same exact things. But we’ll highlight the people we have here.”