Has Jamal Adams been a *gulp* disappointment?

[Jerhawk]

Alright, I know I'm going to catch heat for this one, and it's only week 9 so it may be too soon, but the question does deserve to be raised: Has Jamal Adams been a disappointment?

The NY media is having a field day with the Adams trade: https://thejetpress.com/2020/11/10/ny-jets-jamal-adams-disappointing/

An interesting tidbit from the article reads: "According to Pro Football Focus, Adams is on pace to receive a 68.0 overall grade, which is the worst thus far of his young, promising career. In terms of Adams’ coverage ability, PFF grades him at a 57.6, which ranks 49th at the position. Yeesh."

Now I know some of you guys hate PFF, and yes Adams has only been healthy for 3 1/2 games.
That first game against Atlanta was awesome. He was all over the place, constantly causing issues in the backfield and blowing up plays.

The next game against the Pats, Edelman beat him on a couple plays which was a bummer. Then he got hurt against the Cowboys.

Last week, he had 1.5 sacks and played 100% of the snaps. But, there was one play in particular where Stefon Diggs had Adams all sorts of turned around on a corner route.
Here is Adam's stat line this season: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/A/AdamJa00.htm

I hope that we can look back on this thread and I get shredded. But what do you guys think? Considering the draft capitol we gave up, coupled with a proven starter in McDougal (who is unfortunately on IR), has Jamal Adams been a disappointment so far in his short tenure in Seattle? Or am I just overreacting here?

In my opinion, I don't think they're using Adams correctly. Asking him to cover receivers 1 v 1 isn't his strength, it's playing down in the box. He's not Kam, but they should be using him more like Kam than Mcdougald, which is being disruptive at the line of scrimmage. Maybe that's on coaching?
It honestly feels like he's only impactful when blitzing. And if thats the case, they should have just given up the resources for a pass rusher.

 

[AROS]

It's far too early to think Adams has been a disappointment, mainly due to injury and what I believe is a severe lack of coaching these players with the right schemes on gameday. If he can stay healthy the rest of the year AND the coaching can improve then I think we will see more of what we saw against Atlanta. We need to just throw that Bills game out all around. Fixing/strengthening our schemes and coaching and cohesiveness will all go long ways to resolve any questions someone might have right now. In no sane world is Jamal Adams the problem.

 

[BandWagon11Hawk]

Well, since you had my back, I'll sort of have yours.

It's always worrying based on our past history of bringing in stars, (and maybe a league wide worry?) - to go pay for talent - that tends to get hurt, not perform, etc. Especially fast flashy players, they just always remind me of Harvin.

So in some ways, yes, sort of agree, it has been disappointing, in performance and health.

Definitely agree seeing Adams in coverage looks like a lost deer.

However, I have to wonder if that lost in coverage thing is just a symptom of our entire secondary looking like they are lost in coverage. So I'm going to hold off on explicitly blaming Adams until *any* of our secondary, or defense, can show up at any point, and until they have a chance to all play together?

I'd disagree from what I know of Kam, a Jersey I have, that man seemingly could also cover routes. (At least, at times?)

It would seem to me if we *only* use Adams in a blitzing type / box role, it would negate it's own effectiveness by being incredibly predictable, which is something else we seem to be falling into, based on coaching or simply based on lack of options based on our own skill. Seems to me like Kam was used in coverage as well as at the line, but maybe he only looked good in coverage because of everyone else.

 

[nwHawk]

I heard a similar discussion on Danny and Gallant this morning. My take is they are testing him to figure him out, and down the stretch they could use a hybrid 3 safety system to try to confuse opposing QBs.

I would like to see him, and the whole team, stay healthy. But that's been a problem since they changed trainer staff.

He will be fine and his fire is definitely welcome to this team.

 

[AROS]

This article underscores my point: https://sports.mynorthwest.com/1215264/ ... very-well/

 

[sdog1981]

Adams is an NFL 2020 Safetybacker or Linesafety. Teams are running more and more three safety looks with only 2 linebackers. It is hard to grade him as a safety and it is hard to grade him as a linebacker too.

 

[Jerhawk]

This article underscores my point: https://sports.mynorthwest.com/1215264/ ... very-well/

That's a great read.

And I did a poor job on my OP in regards to the fact that I really like Adams. A lot.
But for whatever reason, it's not working.

I'm in no way questioning his talent or his desire and fire to be dominant. He's a beast of an athlete and the ultimate competitor.

The question I'm just raising is when you think what we gave up to get him, it looks like trying to force a square peg in a round hole in our defense.
I blame the coaches more than Adams, and I didn't explain that well in my OP.

It sort of reminds me of when Graham was being forced to block in our offense, when he was a poor blocker but a great receiver.

Why does this coaching staff say they want to put the players in the best position to succeed, then do the opposite?

 

[JayhawkMike]

Are you saying we have a DC (HC?) too stupid to adjust the scheme to the strengths of the personnel? really?

If so I agree.

Adams will be a great one with the Seahawks. KNJ will go down as the worst DC ever at Seattle.

Some coaches can take mediocre personnel and meld a solid unit out of it. Some take solid personnel and turn them into 11 one-man teams. We have the later.

 

[nanomoz]

Rob Staton at SDB discussed this in a way that I found interesting.

He suggested the Hawks bring on coaches to switch to a 34 front--or Adams will be a disappointment.

http://seahawksdraftblog.com/monday-not ... -beat-down

 

[Sports Hernia]

My only disappointment is he hasn’t been on the field much.

 

[Jerhawk]

Rob Staton at SDB discussed this in a way that I found interesting.

He suggested the Hawks bring on coaches to switch to a 34 front--or Adams will be a disappointment.

http://seahawksdraftblog.com/monday-not ... -beat-down

Another great read. Thank you for sharing that one.

This is why I love coming to Seahawks.net. This is such a great, intelligent community of Seahawks fans.

Any who, Rob raises good points. A 3-4 scheme does fit Adams skillset more than the 4-3.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

This is a question to answer next year, or even the year after.

We all saw what he looked like in the first Atlanta game, dude's a game wrecker. The only disappointing part is his injury that's prevented him from being that game wrecker the entire season.

For me, no he's not a disappointment. Because he is a great safety, he just hasn't had enough time to settle in and show it week in and week out.

What, you want another Collier, Penny or McDowell with our first round picks we gave up for Adams? No thanks, I'll take my chances with one of the top 10-15 players in the entire league for the next 4-5 years, or more.

 

[scutterhawk]

Too early to grade; Injuries not only to Adams, but his supporting cast, & altered schemes.
This isn't a "One Man Show" he's being asked to play away from his greatest strengths and instincts, just like KJ Wright was, and many others who are playing to cover for injuries to their team mates.

 

[hawkfan68]

Adams has been injured so not a disappointment by any means. Dunbar has been more of a disappointment in the secondary.

 

[TwistedHusky]

These trades rarely work out for us.

The only one I can remember that did was Duane Brown.

There is a reason.

1. We tend to ignore the issues that allowed us to trade for the player in the first place. There is a reason they were available, we disregard it thinking it will change here, it usually does not.

2. The player usually has great production that is often partly a product of how they are used. We trade for that production and refuse to use them that way. Perfect example was Jimmy Graham. We traded for a TE that literally petitioned to be considered a WR, then tried to leave him in to block often.

In Adams' case, we used him the way we needed in Atlanta. I saw him in coverage far too often since. He is one of the worst safeties in the NFL at coverage, and there he is out there. In NY he was moved around, attacking from different locations, and he had a much better DC.

To Adams' credit, he has not complained or caused waves like in NY. Not sure what happens with that because if I was a defensive player I would damned sure be complaining now. Cannot blame him if he does.

Usually, the big splash trades or FAs do not work out for us. The 2nd and 3rd tier FA or trades of disgruntled players being replaced by a younger player are where we get our big wins (Avril, Lynch, Dunlap, etc. You could probably consider Bennett one of these too).

To be fair, we would have likely gotten 1st round picks the quality of a Collier so it isn't as if there was much cost in acquiring him. We blow 1sts almost regularly, or at least draft 2nd or 3rd round quality players with our 1sts. So the cost is not an issue.

 

[bigskydoc]

To be completely honest, yes. He has been a disappointment.

You don't trade away that much draft capital expecting so little production.

That is not to say that it is in anyway his fault. Nor is it a prediction that he will still be considered a disappointment at season's end.

 

[AROS]

To Adams' credit, he has not complained or caused waves like in NY. Not sure what happens with that because if I was a defensive player I would damned sure be complaining now. Cannot blame him if he does.

You must have missed the footage of Adams getting into PC's grill during the game last Sunday. Trust me, the complaining is already well under way.

 

[rcaido]

I actually have been more impressed...I didn't think he was worth all those picks we gave up, i still dont but he is a superstar. I dont feel as bad for what we gave up. If we can fix our scheme, then yeah this is the guy you want to build your secondary around.

 

[IndyHawk]

He's a star and will find his way into fitting whatever scheme is used.
I'm not worried about him,it's the DB's that are the issue and yes playing
soft zone BS doesn't help.

 

[knownone]

I'm in the camp of it being hard to tell. Adam's is clearly not great in coverage, and, since our pass defense is collectively garbage, his weakness seems to be even more glaring.

With that said, I don't think this is an issue long term. He's shown elite ability at every other aspect of his position. I mean, the dude is on pace for 7 sacks on the season, and he has missed 4 games. To put that in perspective, if his per-game numbers held up, he'd be on pace for 14 sacks in 16 games. I know it's meaningless to extrapolate, but that's indicative of a skill set that is valuable. And if our coaches can't find a role for him that fits his skill set, that's not because of Adams' or the amount they gave up to get him; nope, it's entirely on them.