Seahawks Prepared To Go Year To Year With Jamal Adams If He Doesn’t Accept Their Offer?

A league source tells Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that the Seahawks are “truly done” negotiating a long-term extension with S Jamal Adams.

According to Florio, the Seahawks believe they’ve made a “fair and appropriate offer” to him and if he declines to accept it, they will let him play out the final year of his rookie contract and then franchise him in 2022 and 2023. Adams is owed $9.86 million this year and a franchise tag next year could run them around $13.5 million with another $16.26 million in 2023.

Florio says the Seahawks have learned what the Jets already knew, which is that Adams is difficult to negotiate with. The Jets decided to trade Adams away in part because they believed they couldn’t reason with him, according to Florio.

Adams hasn’t been participating in practice during training camp, but Florio mentions that Seattle expects that he will show up and play.

Adam Jude and Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times recently reported that the Seahawks and Adams are locked in a “$70-million staring contest.”

Sources told the Seattle Times that the Seahawks and Adams were roughly $4 million apart in annual compensation for Adams at the start of training camp two weeks ago. They have since had some back-and-forth negotiations and were close to meeting in the middle.

Seattle is reportedly offering Adams $17.5 million per year as part of a four-year contract with roughly $38 million guaranteed, which would make Adams the highest-paid safety in the NFL.

Adams and representatives countered are apparently fine with the annual salary, but want $40 million in guarantees and to move bonus money into the first three years of the contract. The Seahawks prefer to spread that money out over the four years of the contract.

The Seahawks are also in a standoff with LT Duane Brown, who is looking for a new contract from the team. 

Adams, 25, is a former first-round pick of the Jets out of LSU back in 2017. He played out the fourth year of his four-year rookie contract worth $22,256,084, which includes a signing bonus of $14,326,244.

The Jets exercised Adams’ fifth-year option before ultimately trading him to the Seahawks for a package including two first-round picks.

The option will cost the Seahawks $9.86 million for the 2021 season. 

In 2020, Adams appeared in 12 games for the Seahawks and recorded 83 total tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, one forced fumble, no interceptions, and three pass defenses. Pro Football Focus had him rated as the No. 53 safety out of 94 qualifying players. 

We’ll have more on Adams as the news is available.