ESPN's 'big prediction' for the Seahawks offseason finally ends a deal gone bad

The Seattle Seahawks made their biggest move of the offseason (sadly, while some teams have not yet started their offseasons, the Seahawks have as they did not make the playoffs) when they mutually parted ways with head coach Pete Carroll. This likely means most, if not all, the assistant coaches will be gone as well. The move away from Carroll also means general manager John Schneider will have more power and we should hope that is a good thing.

But in ESPN's recent offseason predictions for non-playoff teams, they think Seattle will make another big move. That is to release safety Jamal Adams. Whether ESPN predicted that or not, no more Adams needs to happen.

Adams was traded for ahead of the 2020 season, of course, and while he was never expected to be one of the better coverage safeties, he was expected to be a versatile player who would greatly augment the pass rush. He did that but only one season. In 2020, Adams had 9.5 sacks which set an NFL record for sacks in a season by a defensive back.

ESPN predicts Seahawks will move on from Jamal Adams

Since 2020, however, Adams has either missed games with injuries or was unproductive when he did play. Adams has zero sacks since 2020 and in 2023 had his worst passer rating allowed when targeted. Adams is currently signed through 2025 with cap hits of $26,916,666 or more in each of the next two seasons. Releasing Adams would still eat up $20,833,334 in dead cap, but save Seattle a bit over $6 million in cap room this offseason.

If Adams was released with a post-June 1 designation, the move would save the Seahawks $16.5 million. This needs to happen whether Adams was simply decent over the last few years, but he has not been. Seattle only has around $4 million in cap room currently and must create more. Getting rid of Adams is one easy way to do that.

While not having Pete Carroll moving forward doesn't mean the team is doing a complete changeover, the team does need to rebuild certain position groups, such as safety. Adams does not need to be part of the team anymore. He is simply taking up a roster spot for a mostly likely more productive player.

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