Former Jets safety Jamal Adams to miss rest of 2021 season

Jamal Adams’ 2021 season comes to an end

According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, former New York Jets safety Jamal Adams‘ 2021 season has come to an end. After tearing his labrum and suffering additional shoulder damage in the Seattle Seahawks’ recent victory over San Francisco, Adams is having surgery and will miss the remainder of the season.

#Seahawks Pro Bowl S Jamal Adams tore his labrum and suffered additional significant shoulder damage in Sunday’s win, sources say. He’s having season-ending surgery to repair it all. Same shoulder as last year, with surgery a necessity. Adams will make a full recovery for 2022.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 8, 2021

The Jets own Seattle’s 2022 first-round draft pick courtesy of the trade that sent Adams to the Pacific Northwest, so Adams’ absence will have implications on the final placement of that pick. With the Seahawks at 4-8, the selection currently sits in the draft’s fifth overall slot.

Adams’ surgery concludes a disappointing season for the uber-talented safety, particularly as it pertains to his heralded blitzing abilities. He failed to pick up a sack and generated a career-low seven total pressures after setting a record for safeties with 34 last season. His pressure rate of 13.4% was his lowest since his rookie season and is significantly less than half of his career-high 2020 rate (32.0%).

It was another rough year for Adams in coverage. His Pro Football Focus coverage grade of 47.4 ranks fourth-worst out of 65 qualified safeties. That’s a tumble from his already-poor first season as a Seahawk when he ranked 55th out of 64 safeties with a 53.1 coverage grade.

Adams benefited from a whopping six drops on throws in his direction this season. That helped him look less bad in coverage than he actually was.

Many fans claim Adams has never been good in coverage, but that is absolutely not the case. Adams was elite in coverage during his days as a Jet, ranking seventh among safeties with an 87.5 PFF coverage grade in 2019 and third with an 89.6 grade in 2018. Those talents simply have not transferred to Pete Carroll’s defensive scheme.

The run game is the one facet where Adams remained excellent this season. He currently ranks third among safeties with 18 run stops.

In addition to Seattle’s 2022 first-round pick, the Jets also acquired Seattle’s 2021 first and third-round picks in the 2021 draft. Those were packaged together in a trade-up move to select guard Alijah Vera-Tucker, who is enjoying a promising rookie season.

The final return package for Adams will be determined when the first round of the 2022 NFL draft commences on April 28.