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Seattle Seahawks safety Jamal Adams being carted off of the field after suffering an injury.
The NFL world is waiting for the regular season to start with bated breath. The same can’t be said for Seattle Seahawks safety Jamal Adams whose 2023 debut has been delayed.
Head coach Pete Carroll broke the news on Seattle’s 93.3 KJR-FM radio Friday.
Adams missed 16 of 17 games last season after he tore a quad tendon in the season opener. He hasn’t practiced with the team since he was activated off of the PUP list back on August 24.
Adams’ Troubling Injury History Doesn’t Bode Well for Seahawks Future
The former LSU star has missed 25 out of 50 possible games since being traded from the New York Jets to the Seahawks back during the 2020 offseason.
To add insult to injury, the Seahawks made Adams the highest paid safety in football at the time of his deal in 2021. It was a four-year contract with a maximum value of $72 million and featured over $38 million in total guarantees.
One of the reasons the Jets decided to hit the eject button on a 20 something year old All-Pro was the difference in timeline. Gang Green wasn’t ready to win or pay up for a non-premium position.
That was a correct assessment by the team because over the next three years they went 2-14, 4-13, and 7-10 respectively.
In return for Adams, the Jets got two future first round draft choices that ended up becoming wide receiver Garrett Wilson and offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker.
Wilson won Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2022 becoming the first Jets player to ever accomplish that feat in history. While AVT was on a first-team All-Pro path prior to getting hurt in the Week 7 matchup against the Denver Broncos in 2022.
2 Future Pillars of the Jets Organization
The Jets were able to split one asset at a non-premium position into two younger assets at more prominent positional groups.
Adams had to get paid immediately or soon thereafter. Wilson on the other hand is still two years away and AVT is another full year away from even having those conversations.
Multiple analysts thought the Jets won the trade initially when you considered the immediate return on investment. However, like a fine wine the deal has only gotten better with age.
The Jets avoided paying a bag to a safety who ended up being injured a ton. In return the Jets have two potential superstars developing in the wings.
Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic believes Wilson can jump into the “Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chases of the world at the end of the season. Bank it.”
Last season AVT played four out of the five possible offensive line positions due to injury. I’ve had some Jets people joke with me behind the scenes that if they asked him to play center, he would have given it a whirl and probably been pretty good at that too.
This season he is plugging in at right guard, a position that the Jets’ brass believes he has “All-Pro potential” at. Although the break-the-glass-emergency is always there if they need him to bounce out to offensive tackle again in 2023.
Both of those players are invaluable to the team and are big reasons why people are so high on the Jets heading into 2023.
Paul A. Esden Jr. covers the New York Jets for Heavy.com. A New York native, he is also the official PA voice of the Syracuse Strong Football Club and co-hosts Cumulus Media’s morning show, “The Manchild Show with Boy Green.” Before joining Heavy in 2021, Esden Jr. covered both national and New York sports for FanSided, Elite Sports NY and The Score 1260. More about Paul A. Esden Jr.
