DANNY AND GALLANT

Can Seahawks roll with Marquise Blair or should they go after Jamal Adams?

Jun 24, 2020, 8:20 AM

Seahawks Marquise Blair...

The Seahawks may use 2019 second-round pick Marquise Blair at safety or nickel CB. (Getty)

(Getty)

If there’s one position Seahawks coach Pete Carroll knows, it’s safety.

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For one, Carroll was a safety himself during his playing days, and his background before he rose up the ranks to a head coach was as a secondary coordinator or defensive backs coach in both the NCAA and the NFL. And secondly, just look at his most successful Seahawks teams, which were led by the Legion of Boom secondary that featured All-Pro safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor.

“Pete Carroll through his decades, collegiately and here in Seattle, it has been about that position,” said Brock Huard, former NFL quarterback and current FOX college football analyst, Tuesday on 710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny and Gallant. “Pete’s a former safety and it’s only natural that he’s going to know how to coach that up and exactly what he wants in that.”

That being said, the safety position isn’t nearly the strength it has been in the past for the Seahawks, though the combination of Bradley McDougald and Quandre Diggs did have its moments after Diggs’ acquisition via trade during the 2019 season. But Seattle also has two higher-round draft picks from the 2019 NFL Draft that didn’t quite take off as rookies – second-round selection Marquise Blair and fourth-rounder Ugo Amadi.

While the Seahawks appear to be focused on having Amadi in the mix for nickel cornerback, the hard-hitting Blair has a lot of attention on him going into the 2020 season. There’s been talk of him also being an option at nickel corner, though some are calling for Seattle to roll with him at safety instead of the 29-year-old McDougald, whose versatility could be opened up if Blair proves to be the right choice at the position.

And then there’s the possibility of the Seahawks making a run at New York Jets All-Pro safety Jamal Adams, who has requested a trade and reportedly has the Seahawks on his list of preferred destinations.

Huard was asked Tuesday by Danny O’Neil if Seattle should be comfortable with Blair or make a run at Adams. Here’s what he had to say:

“If (Blair) didn’t grab it a season ago and can’t beat out Bradley McDougald, and we’re learning they’re going to bounce him around and play a little nickel, I think that would be a little more concerning. If you’re going to be a second-round pick and you’re going to play in this system – and it is a safety system – you would really hope that he can ascend and really own that spot even though Bradley McDouglad is a serviceable, good NFL player.

“So would there be a need? Yeah, I think there would be a need. I think Jamal Adams is rare in this league, playing free and strong, coming down and covering and hitting with tremendous thump. I just don’t think you have the resources, I don’t think you’re going to spend that amount of cap space to satisfy his demands and his needs. I think that’s largely a non-starter.”

You can hear the full comment and much more from Huard about the Seahawks in the Blue 42 segment of this podcast from Tuesday’s Danny and Gallant.

Follow 710 ESPN Seattle’s Brock Huard on Twitter.

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Can Seahawks roll with Marquise Blair or should they go after Jamal Adams?