Pete Carroll's stubbornness might have destroyed Jamal Adams' career

Pete Carroll and Jamal Adams are no longer part of the Seattle Seahawks franchise and a huge part of the reason could be what specifically happened between the coach and the player. Carroll had the final say over the Seattle roster and as he was the coach then players were going to play where he told them to play. Carroll appears to have been dead wrong about Adams, however.

The issue all stems from 2020, both the idea around the trade that brought Adams to Seattle and then the initial success he had. The problem was that Adams getting 9.5 sacks in his first year with the Seahawks likely validated how Pete Carroll wanted to use him. But what Carroll seemed to overlook was Adams allowing a quarterback rating when targeted of 118.3 and 3 touchdowns.

Adams had never truly been great in coverage and when he did appear to have an opportunity for an interception, he did not seem to be able to catch the ball. Passes would literally hit him in the chest and he would not catch it. What Adams was once good at was attacking the line of scrimmage, but after 2020 he did not have another sack for Seattle while remaining poor in coverage.

The Seahawks and Jamal Adams might have been better except for Pete Carroll's key decision

The front office reportedly had other ideas than Carroll when the team gave up a first-round pick as well as a third-round choice in 2021, a first-round pick in 2022, and safety Bradley McDougald. Seattle got Adams and a 2022 fourth-round choice back in return. Adams had been a First-Team All-Pro safety for the New York Jets in 2019, but general manager John Schneider and many in the front office wanted Adams to move to linebacker so he could be closer to the line of scrimmage.

But Schneider and the front office were ultimately powerless to have any control over where Carroll played Adams. The result of Carroll stubbornly sticking with Adams at safety affected the player - the injuries he did suffer, of which there were many, one could argue was the cause of him playing more in space as a safety than he would have had as a linebacker - and the defense overall.

Seattle was never going to be able to fully overcome the deficiencies that Adams had in coverage but because he had to play coverage he was limited in attacking the line of scrimmage either against the run or the pass. In other words, Adams ended up in no man's land many times while the defensive scheme did not get the maximum use out of the abilities he did have.

Seattle Sports 710 AM's Brock Huard recently said of the Adams situation and how Carroll thought the safety should be used differently than what Schneider and the front office wanted this way: "The front office, from the day they traded for him, many...wanted to see Jamal Adams a linebacker, not Jamal Adams a safety. The thought was, 'Let’s get this guy around the line of scrimmage...Do not put him in two-deep. Put (Adams) around the line of scrimmage to cut people’s legs off, because that’s what this guy’s good at.’ And instead, guess what he played? Safety, safety, safety."

The Athletic's Michael-Shawn Dugar echoed Huard's words via social media and added, "This echoes what John (Schneider) recently said and it suggests 2 things: 1) weird disconnect (between) front office and coaching staff on a massive acquisition; 2) odd roster construction considering Jordyn Brooks was just drafted and KJ/Bobby were under contract, the latter for multiple years."

In essence, since Pete Carroll had the final roster say and full control over the on-field scheme, the Seahawks had a poor roster make-up largely due to his stubborn unwillingness to have Adams play linebacker. The defense might have been much more aggressive and Adams less injured had Carroll used Adams differently. Now, both Carroll and Adams are out of a job.

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