Getty Jamal Adams finally signed a long-term deal with the Seahawks.
The Seattle Seahawks are expecting star safety Jamal Adams in training camp, even if a new contract agreement is not reached. The bad news is the Seahawks and Adams are “not close at all” on reaching a new deal, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
“I don’t expect any issues at all with Adams showing up,” Rapoport said, per NFL.com. “We’ll see for sure tomorrow if he does. But that is, of course, the expectation. Eventually, this will be a deal that I think both sides will be happy with and Jamal Adams will likely be a very, very rich man.”
The Seahawks Want to Make Adams the Highest-Paid Safety Without Topping Wagner’s Deal: Report
The Seahawks first training camp practice is slated for Wednesday, July 28. Nothing is official until Adams arrives in Renton, but the early indications are the Seahawks safety will be in attendance, even without a new deal. Adams had an excused absence from Seahawks minicamp as he dealt with a personal matter. Rapoport reported the Seahawks are okay making Adams the highest-paid NFL safety, but prefer not to make his deal above Bobby Wagner’s contract.
“It does sound like the Seahawks would like to keep this deal under the massive deal that Bobby Wagner, their best defensive player, one of their team leaders, signed last year, that $18 million figure,” Rapoport explained on NFL Now on July 23, 2021. “The Seahawks, this is more math here, [if] the Seahawks have him as the highest-paid safety in the NFL, but below Bobby Wagner, you’re probably looking at about $17 million per year, which would be a massive deal for one of the more fun players in the entire NFL on defense.”
Carroll on Adams: ‘We Expect Him for Camp’
The challenge for the Seahawks is Adams has a lot of leverage since the team gave up two first-round picks for the safety. Seattle cannot afford for Adams to miss games, putting more pressure on the front office to make sure a new deal gets done prior to Week 1. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll emphasized the team does not expect there to be any hiccups in Adams signing a contract extension.
“It’s been ongoing and it’s been amicable throughout,” Carroll noted in June, per NFL.com. “We recognize that he’s a fantastic football player and we’re in the midst of, it’s a big contract process. I know he knows he’s been treated with a lot of respect and he’s been very respectful towards the club, as well. There’s been good talks, just hasn’t been able to get settled at this point. It’s coming. We expect him for camp and everything should be fine.”
Unless there is a serious fallout, Adams is going to be wearing a Seahawks jersey for the foreseeable future. The question is when Adams will sign a new contract and if he will miss training camp practices or, in a worst-case scenario, games. After being traded to the Seahawks, Adams emphasized that his goal is to retire with the Seahawks.
“The plan is to retire here,” Adams said in July 2020, per Seahawks.com. “That is my plan. Obviously, those things handle themselves, all you have to do is go on the field and perform, do the right things on and off the field, and those things will take care of themselves. I’m very excited to be here, I know the rest of the guys are excited to have me, the coaching staff and everybody else, so we’ll worry about that when the time comes.”