Are Seahawks going to reunite with polarizing Jamal Adams?

After free agency signings and the NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks appear to still have a big question mark looming over the linebacking corps.

With draft complete, what is Seattle Seahawks’ biggest question mark?

The Seahawks are less than two months removed from seeing franchise legend Bobby Wagner and former first-round pick Jordyn Brooks depart in free agency. Seattle brought in Buffalo Bills starter Tyrel Dodson and Miami Dolphins starter Jerome Baker to help fill those voids, but both are only on one-year deals.

The Seahawks also took Tyrice Knight of UTEP in the fourth round of the draft, but an impactful season from the rookie is far from a sure thing.

Former NFL wide receiver Michael Bumpus believes there’s an option still out there to boost Seattle’s linebacker situation, and he thinks that could come in the form of a polarizing ex-Seahawk. That player also isn’t a traditional linebacker. Co-host Stacy Rost asked Bumpus who that player is during Tuesday’s Four-Down Territory segment on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy.

“It’s Jamal (Adams),” Bumpus said. “This is why: Jamal’s sitting there, the longer you sit at home, the smaller in amount that contract is going to be, and I think the Seahawks are playing this right. If they are genuinely interested in Jamal, you sit and sit and sit. There’s no rush to get him. I’m sure they’re calling around the league, checking the interest in Jamal.”

Adams spent the past four seasons in Seattle after the 2020 trade with the Jets that sent him and a 2022 fourth-rounder to the Seahawks for first- and third-round picks in 2021 and a first-rounder in 2022.

Despite missing four games in his first season with Seattle, Adams showed why he was acquired by the Seahawks. He lined up all over the field and played 93% of snaps on defense, recorded an NFL record for defensive backs with 9.5 sacks and received All-Pro and Pro Bowl selections for the third straight season.

However, Adams’ tenure with the Seahawks only went south from there. He again played in just 12 games in 2021 – the first year of the NFL’s new 17-game schedule – and didn’t record a sack as the team used him in less of a pass-rushing role than the season prior. A torn quad tendon during the second quarter of Week 1 sidelined Adams for the rest of the 2022 season, and he played just nine games last year due to a concussion in Week 4 and a knee strain that ended his season in Week 14.

In total, Adams played only one more game (34) than he missed (33) in a Seahawks uniform. Adding to the injury issues, Adams had his fare share of struggles in pass coverage, and it was often questioned if he could truly play the role of a traditional safety when asked to.

Moving Adams into a linebacker role would likely make Adams’ coverage abilities more palatable, and Bumpus said the injury history doesn’t preclude Adams from being an effective NFL player.

“That’s why you have leverage in this situation,” Bumpus said. “If you do want to sign a guy like Jamal, you say, ‘Look, you haven’t been available, you’re not healthy, you’re not a real safety. We’re gonna experiment with you at linebacker. Are you willing to come in and try this thing out?’

“…You might hate it, but it’s a real possibility. If you get him for cheap, yeah, you go ahead and sign Jamal.”

Listen to Four Down Territory at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

More Seattle Seahawks draft coverage

• Seahawks ’24 NFL Draft Breakdown: A look at all eight Seattle picks
• Lefko: The message the Seahawks’ 2024 draft class sends
• Salk: With draft done, what we should expect from these Seahawks
• Rost: Seahawks’ future still relies heavily on previous draft classes
• What experts are saying about Seahawks’ draft class

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