Jamal Adams Sees a True Leader in Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll
So far, so good in Seattle. Jamal Adams was disgruntled when he was playing for the New York Jets. After demanding a trade and landing with the Seattle Seahawks, Adams has a fresh start. He’s developed a strong relationship with head coach Pete Carroll, calling him a leader.
Jamal Adams was an unhappy camper with the New York Jets
Big things were expected from Jamal Adams when he was taken in the first round of the 2017 NFL draft. The New York Jets selected the safety out of LSU with the sixth overall pick and he didn’t disappoint. Adams started all 16 games as a rookie for the Jets but didn’t bust out until his second year.
In 2018, Adams proved to be a dominant safety in the NFL. He started all 16 games again while forcing three fumbles and adding an interception. He made the first of his back-to-back Pro Bowls while collecting a career-high 115 combined tackles. In 2019, he returned to the Pro Bowl after playing 14 games and returning his lone interception 61 yards for a touchdown. He also forced two more fumbles and had 75 combined tackles.
Adams and the Jets couldn’t agree on an extension and he wasn’t happy. He requested a traded and was granted one this offseason. The Jets traded Adams and a fourth-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks for two first-round draft picks, a third-rounder, and starting safety Bradley McDougald.
Adams feeling at home with the Seattle Seahawks
During their consecutive Super Bowl appearances, the Seattle Seahawks relied heavily on their defense. Although the team had talented quarterback Russell Wilson, it was the Legion of Boom that struck fear into Seattle opponents.
Jamal Adams is quickly making people forget about Seattle’s defense of old. He’s a major part of the new Seahawks defense that is also expected to cause some serious problems. Adams is not only showing teammates and coaches he’s a talented player, but he’s also proving that he can be a leader for his new team.
“The first thing I love about the guy is the energy that he brings to practice,” Schottenheimer said in the Seattle Times. “You guys see it — we like to have fun out there, we like to fly around. There’s a lot of trash talk, there’s a lot of good-natured ribbing, But his energy is elite, it really is. I mean, there’s a passion about it.”
Jamal Adams sees a leader in Pete Carroll
While things are clicking for Jamal Adams and the Seattle Seahawks on the field, the same holds true off it. Adams has developed a strong relationship with head coach Pete Carroll. That relationship strengthened after Carroll’s press conference Saturday when he spoke for 14 minutes straight, pleading for white people to listen to Black people when it relates to social injustice.
“I saw a leader,” Adams said, according to Seahawks.com. “I saw a man that wants to learn even more and I saw a man that understands the pain that the Black community is going through, I saw a guy that’s willing to listen. That’s what I’ve seen in coach, and I take my hat off to him. He wanted me to start off the meeting, speaking and I thought that was really very powerful, coming from him to me and him having a trust for me to start it off, with so many high caliber guys here—Russ (Wilson), Bobby (Wagner), K.J. (Wright). So I didn’t take that lightly, and I think I set the tone.”
Adams said there’s no magical formula to fix what’s going on in the world. It all starts with listening to each other. “For Pete and so many guys on the staff to understand our pain understand our anger and sit there and listen and educate, that’s what it’s about,” Adams said. “There’s no perfect solution. Everybody wants this perfect answer; no one has it right now, we don’t know. So all we can do is continue to educate and continue to learn.”
