After four injury-plagued seasons, safety Jamal Adams’ time with the Seattle Seahawks has come to an unceremonious end.
On Tuesday, Seattle made the rather unsurprising move to release the three-time Pro Bowler as part of several cuts to prepare for the new league year.
Not only was Adams — who was acquired from the New York Jets in 2020 — unable to stay on the field for Seattle, but he never came close to replicating his 9.5-sack debut season with the team. In fact, Adams hasn’t recorded a single sack since then and has only played in 22 games in that span.
While his best days are undeniably behind him, Adams could be an intriguing boom-or-bust option for teams eyeing to bolster their secondary.
Here are three teams that could be a fit for Adams.
Dallas Cowboys
If Seattle hadn’t mistakenly traded a package that included two first-round picks for Adams, chances are that Dallas would’ve been the team the Jets took advantage of. The Cowboys made an offer for the Lewisville, Texas native at the 2019 trade deadline, and Adams later expressed interest in the team following his trade request from New York.
Despite starting safety Jayron Kearse being set to hit free agency, Dallas is in a relatively stable spot in terms of safety depth, even if it cannot re-sign the veteran. Although that means Adams’ services aren’t necessarily needed, considering he should come cheap, he’d be worth taking a flier on.
Not to mention that since Adams has never been reliable in coverage, he could be better suited to serving more of a box linebacker role with the Cowboys. In turn, this would allow LB Markquese Bell to slide back to safety more often and compensate for a potential Kearse departure.
Green Bay Packers
Green Bay will surely be in the market for multiple safeties, as its top three players at the position will be unrestricted free agents. In all likelihood, the Packers probably won’t consider an Adams pursuit until top safety options such as Xavier McKinney and Geno Stone make their free-agency decisions.
Even so, if they strike out on the more trustworthy candidates — or simply want to add depth — Adams is capable of wearing multiple hats for a Packers defense that would benefit from more versatility.
As we touched on in Dallas’ section above, Adams’ best chance to extend his career may be playing more at linebacker than at safety, and if he’s willing to do so, he’d be a perfect match for the Packers.
At the time of this article’s publication, Green Bay only has four inside linebackers under contract for 2024, and it could still release De’Vondre Campbell to save nearly $10.6M in cap space.
Even though Green Bay will have to manage its cap situation wisely, the team shouldn’t be discouraged from gambling on Adams, especially if it cuts Campbell.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Back in 2021, Steelers HC Mike Tomlin told reporters that Adams was a “unique talent” and explained that “getting him around the football” was a simple formula for success. Of course, Adams isn’t close to the player he once was, but perhaps Tomlin can put him in the best situation to thrive.
Despite having Damontae Kazee and Keanu Neal signed through next season, Pittsburgh will likely search for a safety who can start opposite All-Pro Minkah Fitzpatrick this offseason.
According to Pro Football Focus’ metrics, Kazee and Neal were the NFL’s 71st and 73rd-highest-graded safeties in 2023. While both graded higher than Adams, the former Seahawk was judged on a nine-game sample size. When healthy, Adams is still arguably more effective than Kazee and Neal.
The Steelers have shown a willingness to see what they can get out of players past their primes, most recently with CB Patrick Peterson and WR Allen Robinson II, though neither acquisition paid off in 2023.
However, Adams, in theory, is a better reclamation project to invest in and could be open to a deal worth less than the two-year, $14M contract Peterson signed last offseason.
