Jamal Adams, Seattle Seahawks.
Pete Carroll is a defensive coach who theoretically specializes in defensive backs. The Seattle Seahawks championship team he led had one of the greatest secondaries in NFL history. The famed Legion Of Boom was a special group of unheralded young players who became All-Pros and put the fear of God into opposing receivers. However, since that group broke up, it’s been all downhill for Seattle’s defensive backs.
The first issue is that Pete is a system coach. He has a specific style of defense he wants to play, and that’s the only way the Seahawks will scheme. It’s a pretty vanilla cover-3 that needs corners of a specific type. They must be big and physical, with the ability to cover in both man and zone concepts.
These types of players aren’t the easiest to find. In addition, the NFL is constantly evolving, and if a team can’t adjust to the changes, they get left behind.
The second issue has been a total inability to draft or find quality starters at these positions. Pete and GM John Schneider struck gold with Richard Sherman, Brandon Browner, and even Byron Maxwell in the mid-2010s. Since then, it’s been miss after miss trying to replace them. There was the Cary Williams experience, Jeremy Lane, and the recently departed Tre Flowers.
Neiko Thorpe, Marquise Blair, Justin Coleman, and a host of others also got snaps. The lone starting-caliber player drafted was Shaquill Griffin, and he was probably overrated but still a serviceable starter. The rest ranged from solid special teams players to completely inept.
They’ve been more successful replacing Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor, but at a huge cost. First, there are the wasted picks of Delano Hill (third), Mike Tyson (sixth), Marquise Blair (second), Ugo Amadi (fourth), and Tedric Thompson (fifth).
The Seahawks followed that up with the two first-round picks, a third-round pick, and a fifth-rounder combined to acquire Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams (they did get a fourth back in the Adams deal). Granted, they are one of the best safety duos in the league, but Seattle spent nine draft picks to fill two spots on their defense, and neither player is one they drafted. That’s not a good record of success.
Trading away draft capital to fill holes with players who are getting expensive compounds the problem. It meant the Seahawks couldn’t afford to overpay to keep Griffin. Worse, there are no draft picks (which may not matter since they missed on nearly every DB drafted) to try and replace him. The strange thing is they’ve drafted well with almost every other position group.
It seems like Caroll just wants a physical prototype and thinks he can convert them into starting caliber corners. Tre Flowers and Marquise Blair were college safeties, who Pete overestimated his ability to coach up. Flowers is gone, and Blair has been a non-entity at safety and nickelback.
They’ve done the same thing on the offensive line with project after project, that hasn’t worked either. At a certain point, the strategy has to change.
Giving cornerback D.J Reed a shot to start on the outside was a concession to the team’s lack of real options at the position this season. Reed, who excelled as a slot corner last year, has predictably struggled as a starter in his new role.
The sad part is that a case can be made that a struggling Reed is the Seahawks’ second-best defensive back. This is also a problem since their best is Quandre Diggs and not Jamal Adams.
Adams’s struggles can also be traced back to the corner problems. Last season the Seahawks could leave Griffin on an island, and that meant Adams could be closer to the line. The Prez was better in run-support and was lethal on the blitz.
This year he’s been chasing receivers who blow past him half the time. The other half, he sits in coverage, not making plays. This isn’t what the Seattle Seahawks brain trust had in mind when he signed that huge extension.
Compounding the issue is Seattle’s front seven can’t generate pressure when receivers run around open as soon as the quarterback completes his dropback.
The linebackers can’t be as aggressive against the run when they have to fall back into coverage, or the Seahawks have to play with six defensive backs on the field. Their inability to defend the pass makes them easy to run on, and voila, the Seattle Seahawks have the last-ranked defense against both.
So what can they do? I’m not sure why they had minimal interest in bringing back Richard Sherman or Quinton Dunbar, who both know the system and have played well within the last few seasons. I get the reluctance to trade any more draft capital, but wasn’t it worth it to engage New England about Stephon Gilmore?
Carolina got him for a sixth. At that price, a Seahawks trade for a two-time All-Pro seems more than doable. With no external options available, their best bet may be to revisit last year.
When Jamal Adams was injured, Ryan Neal played well in his place. After Adams returned, they continued to play Neal while using Adams as a LEO/strong safety hybrid. I’d go back to that strategy and turn Adams loose.
With Russell Wilson out for at least a month and the season on the brink of collapse, it’s time to throw caution to the wind. The Seattle Seahawks must find out if Sidney Jones or Tre Brown can be a solid cover corner, stop the run again, and hope for another midseason turnaround.
If that doesn’t work, it’s onto 2022. I bet Schneider is already watching tape of a long, fast, free safety from Central Michigan who could totally be a corner for the Seahawks.