It was always going to come down to this. Just a day after reports of a contract stalemate between the Seattle Seahawks and Jamal Adams that might have been headed to a franchise tag standoff, the team and the safety agreed to a four-year deal worth $70 million with $38 million guaranteed.
A market-setting deal appeared inevitable — Adams’s 17.5 million average is just under a 15% increase over the $15.25 million given to Justin Simmons earlier this offseason — after the Seahawks gave up two first-round picks to acquire Adams from the New York Jets last offseason. It’s worth noting Adams is still 25 years old and won’t turn 26 until October, nearly two full years younger than Simmons who turns 28 in November.
There were numbers and rumors swirling that Adams was seeking around $20 million per year, which would have matched what Jalen Ramsey was given as the Los Angeles Rams traded multiple first-round picks for the star cornerback, but this new deal still gives Adams that boost over the top of the safety market while keeping him below the $18 million average of Bobby Wagner as well as the top of the linebacker market featuring recent deals for Fred Warner and Darius Leonard.
Settling somewhere between the top of the safety and linebacker markets is fitting because that’s been Adams’s role on the field, Adams has played a significant number of his defensive snaps in the box. Labeling Adams as a “box safety” has been used by some to downplay his impact on the field, but he does what he’s asked to do so well, it’s impossible to ignore what Adams brings to the defense.
Adams has the ability to impact all three levels of the defense and that’s important because the Seahawks need him to do so. Part of why Adams is so important to Seattle (and part of the reason they can and had to both acquire and pay him) is how few other impact players the Seahawks have been able to add on that side of the ball.
In 2020, Adams rushed the passer 91 times, according to Sports Info Solutions. That number easily led all safeties with Arizona’s Budda Baker in second at 75. It’s one thing to be a high-volume pass rusher. It’s another to be as efficient as Adams was when doing so. Here’s a look at 14 safeties who had at least 40 pass rushes in 2020, along with their rushing rates and pressure rates.
Safety Pass Rushes & Pressure Rates, 2020
| Player | Team | Pass Snaps | Pass Rushes | Rush% | Sack% | Pressure% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jamal Adams | Seahawks | 526 | 91 | 17.3% | 10.4% | 46.1% |
| Budda Baker | Cardinals | 599 | 75 | 12.5% | 2.7% | 17.6% |
| Malcolm Jenkins | Saints | 616 | 70 | 11.4% | 3.6% | 23.9% |
| Daniel Sorensen | Chiefs | 535 | 65 | 12.1% | 0.0% | 16.1% |
| Jeremy Chinn | Panthers | 581 | 62 | 10.7% | 1.6% | 23.7% |
| DeShon Elliott | Ravens | 643 | 57 | 8.9% | 4.4% | 20.8% |
| Chuck Clark | Ravens | 655 | 51 | 7.8% | 2.9% | 24.5% |
| Bobby McCain | Dolphins | 551 | 51 | 9.3% | 0.0% | 12.2% |
| Jordan Poyer | Bills | 598 | 50 | 8.4% | 4.0% | 16.0% |
| Johnathan Abram | Raiders | 512 | 48 | 9.4% | 0.0% | 26.1% |
| Antoine Winfield Jr. | Buccaneers | 665 | 48 | 7.2% | 6.3% | 25.0% |
| Kenny Vaccaro | Titans | 517 | 43 | 8.3% | 2.3% | 17.1% |
| Brandon Jones | Dolphins | 270 | 42 | 15.6% | 2.4% | 19.5% |
| Ashtyn Davis | Jets | 239 | 40 | 16.7% | 0.0% | 20.0% |
Adams’s 46% pressure rate is unreal, even for a blitzer. Both the rush rate and pressure rate could be cut in half and Adams would still be one of the best blitzing defensive backs in the league. As a team, the Seahawks ranked 26th in pressure rate when they only rushed four. When they rushed five or more, Seattle had the ninth-highest pressure rate. Because of that, Seattle blitzed at the 10th-highest rate in the league in 2020.
Heavy blitzing can leave a lot of stress on the secondary but the Seahawks had the 10th biggest gap in yards per attempt allowed and yards per coverage snap between plays when the quarterback was clean and when he was pressured (meaning the pass defense was significantly better when the opposing quarterback was pressured). Seattle ranked 22nd in EPA per play when they rushed four and ninth when they rushed five.
This level of production came while Adams missed four games during the regular season. It’s dangerous to dive too deep into on/off splits, especially on defense, but the rate at which the Seahawks were better when Adams was on the field was remarkable. With Adams on the field, the Seahawks allowed -0.01 EPA per play. With him off it, that averaged was 0.09, a difference of 0.1 EPA per play. The biggest shift was against the pass, where Seattle averaged 0.03 EPA per play allowed with Adams on the field and 0.17 EPA per play allowed with Adams off. There was also a significant swing in positive plays allowed. With Adams on the field, opposing offenses had positive EPA on 43% of plays. That shot up to 52% without him.
Part of that can be attributed to the offenses faced in those splits (the end of the season did not feature many, if any, good opposing offenses) but Adams’s presence deeply affected how Seattle approached defense. With Adams on the field, Seattle blitzed more often (36% to 18%), mixed in more man coverage (24% to 8%), and forced opposing offenses to run into more stacked boxes (48% to 37% while the defense didn’t stack the box more often with seven box defenders in each split).
There’s also a knock on Adams’s coverage ability and, sure, he’ll never be a great man-to-man defender but if you’re asking him to do that too often, that’s more of a you problem. Adams also has the awareness and athleticism to make up for some of his perceived lack of coverage ability. Like the “box safety” moniker is used in a derogatory fashion, so is his strength of playing downhill. That ability can and has been used as a strength defending the pass.
This is a play from Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons. It was a third-and-11 with Adams lined up as a deep safety in a two-high look to the left side of the defense. At the snap, Julio Jones ran a shallow crosser from Adams’s side that easily beat the corner to space through the middle of the field. Adams read the route and chased Jones down through traffic in the middle of the field to stop the receiver after a gain of five. WIthout Adams in pursuit, it would have been an easy catch and run for Jones to turn the corner and pick up a first down.
In the modern NFL, safeties who can play multiple roles are almost a necessity for a defense. Adams is not going to win playing a traditional deep safety but he wins in so many other areas of the field with the ability to completely take over a game. Adams opens up more possibilities for the Seattle defense and along with Bobby Wagner creates a plus playmaking duo in the middle of the field.
Adams set the new market at safety and it was deserved from his play on the field. With safeties such as Jessie Bates, Tyrann Mathieu, Marcus Maye, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Derwin James, among others set to need new contracts over the next few seasons, we’re approaching a course correction for safety contracts after the position went underpaid through the past few offseasons. It was inevitable Adams would be the catalyst for these new deals but just because it had to happen doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
