Jamal Adams is off the Seahawks’ PUP list, pointing to an early-season return. But that will not come to pass in Week 1. Pete Carroll ruled out the former All-Pro for Seattle’s opener.
The former top-10 pick is on the homestretch of a recovery from a torn quadriceps tendon sustained in the Seahawks’ 2022 season opener. Generally optimistic on the injury front, Carroll said the Seahawks would give the former big-ticket trade acquisition more time. The 14th-year Seattle HC said during a KJR interview Adams could be sidelined multiple games.
On-field preparations for the Seahawks’ opener against the Rams did not include Adams, who is going into his age-28 season. Adams has only participated in walkthroughs since being activated off the active/PUP list on August 24. The former Jets standout has missed 25 games as a Seahawk. The team added insurance, in the form of Julian Love, at the position in free agency. Love joins Adams and Quandre Diggs in comprising the NFL’s most expensive set of safeties.
The Seahawks are hoping to use Adams more near the line of scrimmage, his specialty, while Diggs and Love operate in more traditional safety roles. The team has Diggs tied to a three-year, $39M accord; Love signed a two-year, $12M deal in March. Adams’ record-setting deal ($17.5M AAV) still sits third at the position, two years after it was finalized. The Seahawks have $40.9M allocated to their safety position on their 2023 cap sheet. No other team’s number crosses $25M at this position.
Giving up two first-round picks and a 2021 third-rounder in the 2020 Adams swap, the Seahawks have ended up on the losing end of this deal. The Jets used the first-rounders on Alijah Vera-Tucker (via trade-up) and Garrett Wilson. The Seahawks would be hit with $9M-plus in dead money by designating Adams as a post-June 1 cut in 2024; Adams’ $18.1M cap hold tops the team’s 2023 payroll. For now, the team will hope to see the seventh-year veteran recapture old form.
Additionally, Carroll said first-round pick Devon Witherspoon is unlikely to begin the season on time, per the Tacoma News-Tribune’s Gregg Bell. The No. 5 overall pick is nursing a hamstring injury. While Carroll ruled out Adams for the opener, he stopped short of confirming the rookie cornerback would be sidelined. Witherspoon is by far the highest corner draftee of the Carroll-John Schneider era. The team had previously never used a first- or second-round pick on that position.
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