After a mediocre season for his team on the field – coupled with less than acceptable behavior off the field – the Seattle Seahawks have cut ties with safety Jamal Adams.
Adams made $11 million last year as part of a four-year, $70.58 million contract he signed in 2021.
But now the 28-year-old won’t suit up for Seattle next season, costing the team about $20.8 million in dead cap space.
2024 would be the final season in a saga that wasn’t as fruitful as the Seahawks had hoped when they traded to acquire Adams from the New York Jets in 2020.
That deal sent Adams and a fourth-round pick to Seattle in exchange for two first-round picks, a third-round pick and safety Bradley McDougald.
The Seattle Seahawks have pulled the plug on safety Jamal Adams and officially cut him
One of those two first-round picks turned into a star wide receiver for the Jets: Garrett Wilson. The other first-rounder was traded to the Minnesota Vikings so New York could move up to get guard Alijah Vera-Tucker.
Adams’ tenure in Seattle was marked by injuries and a lack of production he saw in New York – with the lone exception being his first season.
Even then — in a season where he was named a second-team All-Pro player and received a Pro Bowl nod, he missed significant time due to injury.
In fact, Adams missed games every season due to various ailments he suffered during his time. For 2020, he injured his groin in week 3 and didn’t return until week 9.
In 2021, Adams tore his labrum in Week 13 and also missed the remainder of his season.
The worst injuries came in 2022, when Adams tore a quad tendon in the first game of the season and missed the rest of the recovery.
Adams played in just nine games in the 2023 season, not making his debut until October and then missing every game after a Week 14 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Adams spent four seasons in Seattle, where he underperformed and was often injured
But in 2023, Adams generated more attention for his off-the-field antics than his on-field play
But this season, Adams has made more headlines off the field than on it, thanks to his numerous altercations, including with a reporter.
In his first game back from the injury of 2022, Adams was pulled from the game against the Giants due to a concussion. Cameras filmed him cursing an official on the sidelines.
Just weeks after that Week 4 incident, Adams was seen berating another sideline concussion doctor against the Bengals and making what the NFL called “inappropriate physical contact.” He was fined $50,000 by the league.
Weeks later, Adams was criticized for his poor defense following a game-winning touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football.
Connor Hughes, a reporter for SNY who followed Adams since his days in New York, retweeted the piece and captioned it, “Yikes.”
Adams took the low-key route and decided the best way to respond to that criticism was to tweet a photo of Hughes and his wife with the caption, “Yikes,” as well as a mocking emoji.
He later deleted the tweet, but not before fans criticized security’s terrible judgment. Still Adams redoubled his actions.
“Oh, it’s always the athlete who crosses the line when he reacts,” Adams said in December. ‘But at the end of the day, disrespect is disrespect. However you want to take it.
Adams was caught twice berating medical officials who took him away for suspected concussion
Adams also posted a photo of Connor Hughes’ wife and captioned it “yikes” before deleting it
Despite deleting that post, Adams doubled down on his actions and his reasoning behind them
“So I responded. I knew when I clicked on that tweet I wasn’t in it to win it. Ultimately it was to make him understand that he had to leave me alone.’
Adams added, “When others go low, I go lower. I mean, you can sit there and regret it. But that’s not how I live my life. We’ve had history, Connor and I… We’ve never liked each other.
“I’m not here to say whether it was fair or not. But at the same time, at the end of the day, it’s been personal for him and me since I’ve been with the Jets and even before that, since my rookie year.”