Jamal Adams – With padded practice haven begun at Seahawks camp, it has allowed observers to watch practice at a different speed. After a couple of days of no pads and just going through the motions, practice has picked up the pace, and players are now allowed to engage in contact. Coach Pete Carroll being the enthusiastic fun-loving coach that he is was all fired up for the padded practice stating, “today’s the first day we put on shoulder pads, which is good to get back to that part of the game, which is kind of the real part.”
Real, indeed. Living in a world where almost nothing seems or feels real, padded football practices can instantly snap you out of that delusion. Without pads, players are not going to be able to line someone up and hit them. With the pads on, players can adjust their speed of play, which brings more intensity. It’s one of the main reasons why every year there always fights breaking out during training camp.
The biggest acquisition of the summer was when the Seahawks traded for SS Jamal Adams from the New York Jets. While many felt the Jets won the deal in the long haul because of the number of picks that Seattle gave up, I think the Seahawks end up winning the deal because of Adams’ talent alone. No draft picks are guaranteed to burst onto the scene and become one of the best to ever do it. Being a Seahawks fan that has been evident as over the last couple of years, our first-round draft picks have not blossomed into superstars. Jamal Adams will make more of an immediate impact on this team then the picks will have on the Jets when they get drafted. The Seahawks have made it clear that they are in win-now mode.
Jamal Adams has proved his worth to the Seahawks on the first day of padded practice. Seahawks reporter, John Boyle has been observing Seattle’s practices and noticed the impact that Adams had on the first day. Boyle reports that during 11 on 11 drills, Adams comes off the edge and blows up a running play in the backfield. Later on, during the same drills as the first-team defense was facing off against the first-team offense, Adams made a play on the ball by intercepting Russell Wilson and running down the sideline with excitement.
Recently, there were some shots being thrown at each other between Jets defensive Coordinator Greg Williams and Seattle Seahawks head coach, Pete Carroll. Mike Florio of NBC Sports reported that in a press conference, Jets DC Greg Williams suggested that Jamal Adams would get “bored” in Seattle’s defensive scheme. Williams went on to say:
“[they] don’t use their safety-type things and all the different complexities of maybe not showing what they’re doing as much as we do.”
While Greg Williams is wrong about everything he stated, the one thing he definitely remains is petty. The Seahawks have produced two hall of fame safeties within the last decade in Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor. Those two players are some of the best to ever put a Seahawks uniform on and throughout their careers in Seattle, they displayed how dynamic safeties truly are in that defensive scheme.
Pete Carroll not taking the comments likely when asked about them, responded: “we don’t make as many mistakes as he does.” Later on, when Carroll was asked about what Jamal Adams will bring to the defensive end of the field, Carroll responded, “he’s not bringing Greg Williams with him, that’s for sure.” All of this fun has made their week 14 matchup even more spicy. I know I am looking forward to that one.
For a team that always has high energy when they play, Jamal Adams will bring a whole other electric bolt to this defense when they take the field. Adams is an intense player who I imagine will be used all over the field. If you remember, not too long ago when Kam Chancellor was playing, Seattle had him lined up all over the place. He would lurk around in the box playing the linebacker position. Other times they would have him line up right against an offensive lineman in an attempt to crowd the backfield (and it worked most times) and of course, he would match up in single coverage against tight ends. If you had asked Kam if he was bored in Seattle, he would probably just laugh off the question similarly to how Adams did when he was asked about it.
I knew it wouldn’t take long for Adams to make such a solid impression on the Seahawks because if they didn’t already believe in him, then they wouldn’t have given up as much to get him. For those who doubted the move by Seattle, they too will change their minds about it when the regular season kicks off and Adams displays his playmaking ability week after week.
Image Source:Jeffrey Beall / CC BY-SA
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