While the Seattle Seahawks were expected to address the secondary heading into the 2023 NFL season, swooping in to sign former New York Giants safety Julian Love came as a surprise, especially at such a discounted price.
Spotrac.com predicted Love’s market value would demand a five-year, $39.8 million deal, but the Seahawks signed the 25-year-old to a two-year, $12 million contract. However, the move to sign yet another safety raised some eyebrows.
Bleacher Report‘s Alex Kay wrote on Tuesday, June 27, “The Seahawks weren’t hurting for talent at the safety position—the team already had Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs under contract — they wisely didn’t pass on the opportunity to get a player of Love’s caliber at that price.”
While rumors immediately swirled that the addition of Love meant Adams, who signed four-year, $70.5 million contract with the Seahawks in 2021, was on the chopping block, Kay believes that’s a strong possibility, but not until the 2024 NFL season.
“The Love signing also provides some much-needed injury insurance for Adams after the three-time Pro Bowler missed at least four games in each of his three Seattle seasons, including participating in just one game all of last year. The franchise has a cost-effective opportunity to move on from Adams next offseason, removing the veteran safety’s $23.6 million cap hit from the books in exchange for a $14.2 million dead cap charge. Cutting Adams would vault Love into an even more prominent role for 2024 and potentially beyond should he elect to re-up in the Pacific Northwest.”
Peter Carroll Plans to Utilize All 3 Starting Safeties
GettySeahawks strong safety Jamal Adams during pregame warm-ups at Lumen Field on September 19, 2021.
While Adams set a single-season sack record (9.5) for a defensive back in 2020 — the year he was acquired from the Jets in a blockbuster trade, the LSU alum recorded zero sacks during the 2021 NFL season, appearing in just 12 games due to a shoulder injury. The 2022 NFL season was obviously a bust, as he suffered a torn ACL in Week 1.
However, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll shut down the narrative that adding Love meant Adams was on his way out. “I know there’s some conversation that what we did with Julian, does that have some impact on Jamal or [fellow safety] Quandre [Diggs] — it doesn’t,” he said, per ESPN. “We have a clear thought of what we’re going to do with our guys and how we want to play them and we feel very fortunate to have all our guys.”
When Adams is able to return, Carroll is hoping to utilize all three safeties. “We’ve been on this awhile,” he said.
However, if Adams, 27, is unable to return to an All-Pro level this season, which may be difficult to do coming off an ACL tear, the Seahawks may decide to cut their losses. As for Love, it was a surprise the Giants let him walk after a career year. During the 2022 NFL season, Love recorded 124 tackles, five pass defended, two interceptions, one sack, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
Julian Love Is Making a Smooth Transition in Seattle
Julian Love Seahawks 🔥 🔥
While moving to the opposite side of the country and learning a new playbook can be a daunting task, Love says the transition has been pretty smooth.
“It’s a process, you’ve got to take advantage of each day,” Love said, per Seahawks.com. “I was out here this spring just for that, to get the playbook down and get my surroundings down because come training camp, you want to be hitting the ground running. And everyone has bought in already. I was a little late to the party, but they’ve accepted me and it’s been a good process so far.”
Love has already impressed Carroll. “He’s been fantastic,” Carroll told reporters earlier this month. “He’s a young kid still, a young man still. But he’s like he’s been around forever. He’s got great sense, great awareness, presence. He totally gets football, it makes sense to him, he’s an excellent communicator, really a gifted, smooth athlete with real quickness, and real quickness, and that comes from really great instincts.”
Diggs also likes what he sees so far. “J-Love is a really smart guy,” the team captain said. “We sit in meetings, and I have a question or he has a question, just kind of ask each other and see what it is. But you can tell he’s definitely been studying his stuff. He knows what he’s doing. I’m comfortable letting him make calls and things like that. It’s been fun. He can play.”
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Seahawks Rumors: New Addition Predicted to Replace $70 Million Starter