Heaps: Why Jamal Adams would benefit most from an improved Seahawks pass rush

After finishing seventh in the NFL in sacks in 2020, the Seahawks fell all the way to 22nd in 2021 despite returning nearly all their top rushers from the year prior.

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In 2020, Seattle started slow but finished the year with 46 sacks, the defense brought down opposing quarterbacks just 34 times and had only three players with more than two sacks on the year.

If the Seahawks are able to have a more potent pass rush during the upcoming 2022 season, which Seattle defender would benefit the most? Former NFL quarterback Jake Heaps answered that question in 4-Down Territory during Wednesday’s edition of Jake and Stacy on 710 ESPN Seattle.

“The name that comes to mind is Jamal Adams,” Heaps said. “Maybe you could say Darrell Taylor getting help and obviously getting a lot of attention if he’s going to be your best pass rusher going into the year, but I believe that it helps Jamal Adams the most.”

Taylor was a bright spot for the Seahawks in 2021, finishing tied for second on the team with 6.5 sacks after missing the entirety of his 2020 rookie season.

Adams, meanwhile, registered no sacks in 2021, a huge drop off from what he did in 2020.

In 2020, Adams’ first year with the Seahawks, the strong safety set an NFL record for sacks by a defensive back in a single season with 9.5. Adams set that record in just 12 games, and he earned second-team All-Pro honors for his play.

Adams then signed a lucrative contract extension last offseason, making him the league’s highest-paid safety.

Adams again played in 12 games in 2021 and had 87 tackles, no sacks, four tackles for loss and two QB hits as he was used less as a blitzer than the previous season.

And when Adams did blitz, it didn’t accomplish much, Heaps said.

“The conversations were that as soon as Jamal Adams was in certain alignments in their blitz packaging schemes that (opposing teams) would automatically turn the protection over to Jamal Adams,” Heaps said.

So if the Seahawks are able to improve the pass rush either organically or through big signings like Chandler Jones and/or Akiem Hicks like Heaps is pulling for, what does that do for Adams and the defense as a whole?

“Now you leave those guys with one-on-one opportunities to rush the passer and it helps everyone else open up,” Heaps said. “(It gives) Darrell Taylor more one-on-one opportunities to rush the passer. And if (the opposition) can’t combat it that way and they can’t solely slide protection over to Jamal Adams because they have their own problems to deal with with your own pass-rushing unit, then it does free up Jamal Adams to have more opportunities to go one-on-one against running backs, one-on-one against tight ends where Jamal Adams is going to win nine out of 10 times. That to me would be a definite benefit to Jamal Adams with a drastically improved pass rush.”

Listen to the entire second hour of Wednesday’s Jake and Stacy at this link or in the player below.

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