The Ballad of Blitz Boy
July 25th, 2020, most people were reducing travel because of the Coronavirus, Jamal Adams was eagerly boarding a flight to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He had been traded to the Seattle Seahawks, a team coming off an impressive 11-5 season for two first-round picks, a third-round pick, and quality starting safety Bradley McDougald. That’s a little rich of a price for a safety. Though the Seahawks were widely regarded as a playoff team because of their offense, their defense was less to be desired. The Seahawks had a plus-seven score differential because their 9th ranked scoring offense was barely caring their 22nd ranked scoring defense. Most appalling of all was the Seahawks horrible sack total of 28—nothing like Seahawks fans have become accustomed to in the last couple of years.
Jamal Adams was coming to Seattle to be a pure defensive menace—he was going to be a weapon. The Seahawks were going to put Jamal all over the field and have him play where he was needed. Due to the way the Seahawks use their star safety, there have been some questionable plays on Jamal’s end that have made him a target for criticism. Most noticeably in Week 2 of the 2020 season, the Seahawks were playing the New England Patriots in Lumen Field. Jamal had a poor game all around, but his coverage was horrible. Jamal Adams was covering Julian Edelman on crucial plays, and on each play, Edelman beat him. Julian Edelman only had 315 yards in six games last season for the New England Patriots—179 of those yards came in this game. To make matters worse for Jamal, he allowed the only three receptions of 20 or more yards that Julian Edelman hauled in all season. Not good.
Before we move along further, it is important to note that it would be far too time-consuming to mention Jamal’s blunders in coverage because frankly, I don’t have the time to do that. Anyhow, Jamal’s work in coverage this past season was poor, but an outlier. He was considered great in zone coverage and underrated in man-coverage with his time on the Jets. What happened? Well, the answer is quite simple—he needed more time to get acclimated to the Seahawks defensive scheme. He only had a few months to learn a new system while also being restricted with COVID-19 mandates. It was not going to be a smooth transition. However, Jamal’s skillset and great understanding of the defensive side of football helped him to fit in better than people give him credit. It is still hard to believe that Jamal Adams played the majority of the season injured and still made the impact he did—which leads us to our next topic!
Jamal Adams was banged up in the 2020 season. He really only played two games that he was 100 percent, those being Weeks one and two. In Week three against the Dallas Cowboys, Jamal suffered a groin injury that sidelined him for four games. When Jamal came back to the struggling Seahawks defense, he picked up where he left off and ravished opposing defenses from the box by stuffing runs and harassing quarterbacks. Jamal’s return along with the acquisition of former Cinncinati Bengals edge rusher Carlos Dunlap saw the Seahawks’ defense turn from liability to strength at defensive line. Sometime down the line, Jamal suffered a nagging injury to his fingers, and then later on he would hurt his groin again in the regular-season finale against the San Francisco 49ers and he played nowhere near 100 percent against the Los Angeles Rams in the wild card. Jamal Admas was a pro-bowler and a 2nd team all-pro in a season that saw him play 12 games and only even healthy for a fraction of them.
Another point I would like to make is that Jamal Adams is a strong safety. People who watch football know that there are two safeties— a strong safety, like Jamal Adams, and free safety, like Ed Reed. The main difference between these two is that free safety does most of its damage in coverage against receivers who dare to cut across the open field. A strong safety does most of their work playing up closer to the line scrimmage and helping the front seven. Just because a strong safety plays closer to the line, they are utilized mainly as an extra linebacker in the backfield to clean up the plays that the linebackers let slip by. Great players like Troy Polamalu and Kenny Easley were strong safeties and they had multiple moments where they would make amazing stops at or behind the line of scrimmage. This is because of their skillset and they do what is asked of their position.
One thing I have never been able to understand is why people call Jamal a glorified linebacker. I know they do it as an insult because he’s ‘Blitz Boy’, but they seem to completely forget they used that same comparison for another Seattle Seahawks pro-bowl strong safety, Kam Chancellor. Kam Chancellor was vicious, there is no other way to describe him. His hit on Vernon Davis will always be remembered as one of the greatest hits in NFL history—that man was out for blood on any Sunday. People saw Kam’s amazing physicality and ruthlessness and thus people began saying that he was a linebacker playing safety—as a compliment. However, with Jamal Adams, it’s an insult. The only reason why I can believe that people would be keen on praising Kam and demoralizing Jamal is that Jamal is more of a personality than Kam. Jamal is talking smack to opponents and because of this has developed an unlikable sense to him (see hit on John Wolford). You didn’t get that with Kam Chancellor. Kam came in to play football and leave it all on the field—a quiet man who took no names. A completely different path to greatness. Though they are two different players, they were both players of the same position and did similar things. There is just a bias between fans of the NFL on this one.
With all of this being said, Jamal Adams has been an incredible addition to the Seattle Seahawks. In only 12 games last season he recorded 9.5 sacks as a defensive back, the single-season NFL record. Due to his talent of rushing quarterbacks and his ineptitude in coverage during the 2020 season, Jamal Adams was rewarded with the moniker ‘Blitz Boy’—but you already knew that. Jamal Adams should be seen as more than just a safety worth $70 million. He is an elite defensive presence that disrupts quarterbacks, jams the line of scrimmage, and makes huge hits and tackles in space. He should be seen as a top 5 safety in the NFL, but people can’t look past his lucrative trade price to see what he is truly capable of. Then again, we should expect Jamal to live up to his contract and position and learn to improve his coverage abilities, or he should seriously consider changing positions.