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Analysis: Jets trade Jamal Adams to Seahawks

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After months of speculation, the New York Jets have traded strong safety Jamal Adams to the Seattle Seahawks in return for a 2021 1st round pick, a 2021 3rd round pick, a 2022 1st round pick and  Bradley McDougald. In return, the Seahawks also receive a 2021 4th round pick on top of Adams per Ian Rappoport on Twitter

Trade breakdown

So, to summarise, the Jets receive from Seattle:

  • 2021 1st Round Pick
  • 2021 3rd Round Pick
  • 2022 1st Round Pick
  • Former Bucs and Seahawks S Bradley McDougald

Seattle receives:

  • Jamal Adams
  • A 2021 4th Round Pick

The 2021 picks exchanged in this trade are super interesting here. If the current COVID-19 situation continues in America then it is highly doubtful we’ll receive a 2021 college football season. At least a season on time. Whereas NFL teams can be contained to a certain extent, when it comes to college teams, you have to plan for the entire school – students, teachers, administration staff, sanitation workers, etc. Due to this big risk, it makes sense that Seattle threw in the 2022 1st round pick, assuming that the States are in somewhat normal condition heading into the 2022 college football season.

From the Seahawks point of view, it should hardly come as a surprise that John Schneider has dealt two 1sts and a 3rd in exchange for the best safety in the NFL. The Seahawks have become renowned for trading out of the first round under Schneider’s leadership and undoubtedly have no qualms parting with two of them for Adams. Moreover, the Seahawks last four 1st round picks have been: Jordyn Brooks (2020), L.J. Collier (2019), Rashaad Penny (2018) and Germain Ifedi (2016). From 2013-2016 the Seahawks didn’t even make a selection in the first round.

       

For the Jets, this trade will come as a bitter pill to swallow – despite the respectable bounty acquired. Jamal Adams is the type of generational talent that you aspire to have on your roster. With the clear disconnect between Jets head coach Adam Gase and Adams, Jets fans everywhere may look back in a few years (or even now) to the hiring of Gase and rue the day the organisation sided with management over the transcendent talent at safety.

Bradley McDougald is a respectable starter level of talent and the Jets will not be a liability at safety in Adams presence, even if McDougald is a significant downgrade on Adams.  (This is a testament to how good Adams is).

How Adams fits in Seattle

It is well-documented that the Seahawks still run that Cover 3 shell they helped popularise so much with the ‘Legion of Boom’. However, in recent years, with the slow death of the L.O.B., the Seahawks D has taken somewhat of a step back.

While structurally sound, the Cover 3 defence needs talent to truly work. You need lockdown corners, rangey safeties with freakishly good ball instincts and a formidable front seven. Fellow NFC West head coach Kyle Shanahan recently explained on the Chris Simms Podcast, ‘the foundation of that Seattle scheme is as good as anything’.

Shanahan went on to say ‘if you have talented players, there’s no way to really trick it. It’s too sound. You have to earn everything.’ Well is appears Schneider and Pete Carroll listened to Shanahan.

       

With the inclusion of Adams, the Seahawks D has now jumped from respectable to downright concerning for NFC teams everywhere. While the D-Line could do with a bit of work, Shaquill Griffin is burgeoning into a lockdown corner, Bobby Wagner is still one of the best linebackers in the league and now Adams is going to partner Quandre Diggs on the back end. Make no mistake, this is a long way off from the L.O.B., but it’s a clear statement that Seattle is trying to get back to its ways.

For Adams personally, this Cover 3 shell is going to allow the two-time Pro Bowler a lot more freedom to operate. Keep an eye out on Sunday’s for Adams picking off deep balls, rushing the passer and blowing up runs in the box. Without getting too hyperbolic, Adams does appear to be a nice meld between Earl Thomas III and Kam Chancellor.

Turmoil in New York

The situation in Seattle is seemingly completely and utterly juxtaposed to the one in New York. The hiring of Adam Gase last summer came as a head-scratcher then – and with good reason. Gase has shown on multiple occasions that without Peyton Manning, he just doesn’t seem up to the task scheme-wise. And that can be okay if you’re a good man-manager and surround yourself with smart coaches. Kind of like what Jimmy Johnson did in Dallas in the early 1990s.

However, Gase has shown time and time again that he is not a leader of men and that his players outright despise him. Just a day before the news of Adams’ trade broke, respected Jets beat reporter Manish Metha published a piece for the New York Daily News in which Adams described Gase as ‘I don’t feel like he’s the right leader for this organization to reach the Promised Land’.  Adams went on to say ‘If we’re playing s—-y and we’re losing, he doesn’t address the entire team as a group at halftime. He’ll walk out of the locker room and let another coach handle it.’

The statements about Gase, as well as the off the field news about Jets owner and Trump administration ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, is pretty damn alarming. Don’t be surprised to find Jets fans irate over Gase still being in charge after management brought in a new GM (not bringing in a GM and coach together as competent organisations do) and sided with Gase over keeping Adams.

Closing thoughts

The Seahawks and Seahawks fans will come out of this trade happy. The bounty of picks given up is not valued that greatly by the team on the West Coast and in return, they receive a transcendent talent that will help enhance their defensive scheme. Furthermore, the 2021 picks may not even hold the same value as previous NFL Drafts due to the COVID-19 pandemic delaying or even preventing the 2020/21 college football season.

For the Jets, although they received some nice compensation, that will come as little comfort to those tired, angry and sad Gangreen fans who have very little to cheer for now.

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