Source: Jamal Adams expected to miss rest of Seahawks season because of shoulder surgery
Jamal Adams has the same injury on the same shoulder he had last winter. And it’s apparently going to end his Seahawks season.
The Pro Bowl safety the team signed to a record contract this season is expected to need season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder he had operated on last winter, a league source told The News Tribune Wednesday morning.
Adams spent Tuesday seeking a second opinion and was awaiting word of whether surgery was indeed a must, the source said.
The 26-year-old Adams left Seattle’s home win over San Francisco on Sunday in the second quarter, after he had played 27 of the Seahawks’ 58 defensive snaps. An equipment man took his helmet from him, as if to keep him from returning to the game. He eventually followed that man and his helmet into the locker room before halftime.
He returned to the sideline during the third quarter, wearing street clothes.
Ryan Neal, normally the team’s nickel, sixth defensive back, replaced Adams and played 57% of the defensive snaps against San Francisco. That meant less dime and more nickel defenses in passing situation, with Neal next to Pro Bowl free safety Quandre Diggs and Ugo Amadi the fifth defensive back.
In August, the Seahawks ended Adams’ “hold-in” of refusing to practice by signing him to a four-year, $70 million contract with $38 million guaranteed. It’s the richest contract in NFL history for a safety. It has him under contract with Seattle through the 2025 season, the same season through which coach Pete Carroll is signed with the team.
That’s on top of the expensive price Seattle paid to get Adams on the team before the 2020 season. The Seahawks traded two first-round draft choices plus veteran starter Bradley McDougald to the Jets to acquire Adams, who was coming off an All-Pro season for New York.
He had 9 1/2 sacks in his Seattle debut season of 2020. That was when coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. had him blitzing more than 10% of the time and often lining up close to the line of scrimmage, often more like a unique linebacker or edge pass rusher than as a safety.
It worked when Adams got to quarterbacks. But in all the other plays he didn’t, Diggs was left alone as the only deep cover man in a defense that spent much of last season allowing the most passing yards and points in the league.
This season, Carroll and Norton sought to minimize the risk of giving up huge plays by blitzing Adams less than half the time he did in 2020. He’s been far more a coverage safety, often in two-deep looks with Diggs. Seattle’s defense overall has blitzed less in 2021, relying on the front four linemen to generate pressure on quarterbacks. That’s often failed.
But Sunday against the 49ers, it worked, including after Adams left the game injured. End Carlos Dunlap got his first sack of the season, for a safety that tied the game at 23 in the third quarter. Dunlap then batted down Jimmy Garoppolo’s fourth-down pass with 18 seconds left to seal Seattle’s win.
Now, it’s Neal
Now for the final five games of 2021 it’s Neal next to Diggs, whose contract is ending at the end of this season.
Neal has five starts in his four-year NFL career. He’s been with the Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons and Seahawks. Philadelphia signed him as an undrafted rookie free agent from Southern Illinois in April 2018. The Eagles released him that August before he played a game for them.
Seattle signed him to the practice squad in September 2019. His first appearances for the Seahawks were on special teams.
This season he’s made sure tackles immediately after catches short of the line to gain on third downs. He’s been one of the few Seahawks to consistently get third-down stops on a defense that often has had trouble getting off the field.
But that was in a limited role of mostly 10 to 20 snaps per game, as the dime defensive back.
His 33 snaps against the 49ers, most of them replacing Adams for the final 2 1/2 quarters, were Neal’s season high. He missed a tackle in the open field on tight end George Kittle down the sideline late that gave Kittle 12 extra yards (though a penalty called back that gain). That was as the 49ers moved 95 yards to the Seattle 3-yard line trying to tie the game in the final seconds.
But then Neal was part of the Seahawks’ uprising that kept San Francisco out of the end zone and won the game.
Neal had the first hit on 49ers runner Elijah Mitchell at the line before cornerback Sidney Jones tackled the rookie at the 3-yard line on second and goal. On fourth down, Neal and linebacker Jordyn Brooks were in double coverage on Kittle in the end zone when Garoppolo appeared to be throwing that way. Dunlap leaped and batted down the pass to secure Seattle’s second win in more than two months.
“You love it, man. That’s what you play the game for,” Neal said outside the Seahawks’ locker room following Sunday’s victory.
“Games like that, those are the ones you’ve been watching since you were a kid, like, ‘I wish I had that moment.’
“It’s awesome being in that situation, that scenario, that type of game. That’s what you live for, you know what I mean? To get big stops like that back to back, makes you happy.
“But there’s a lot of work to be done. More work from here.”
More work for Neal, now, specifically, beginning with a likely starting assignment Sunday when the Seahawks (4-8) play at Houston (2-10).
He’ll be doing it finally coming off a win, with Seattle still on the far fringes of playoff contention, two games out of the NFC’s final postseason spot (not including tiebreakers that are mostly against the Seahawks) with five games remaining.
“It’s the biggest relief ever. All you want is that one ‘W,’” Neal said.
“We already know what it is. That’s just the beginning. We know we’ve got a lot of work to do. And we’re right back to work. We are hungry for the next opp.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 7:04 AM with the headline "Source: Jamal Adams expected to miss rest of Seahawks season because of shoulder surgery."
