Seahawks S Jamal Adams Says He Considered Retiring After Injury Last Year

Seahawks S Jamal Adams admitted Friday that he considered retiring from the NFL after the serious leg injury he suffered last year.

Adams said he was bawling in the locker room after he received the news that his season was over and he later found himself in a “dark place.”

“It was tough,” Adams said, via ESPN.com. “I thought about retiring. I thought about a lot of things. Is this going to be it for me? I didn’t know. But I knew eventually, after I got that MRI, I told myself I’m going to be back. I didn’t know when or how, but I was going to figure it out.”

Adams explained that the number of injuries he sustained over the last three seasons played a role in contemplating retirement. Last year, Adams suffered a quad tear and before that, he had two torn shoulder labrums along with groin, elbow and finger injuries.

“I was having all types of thoughts running through my mind, but at the time when I did tear my knee, that was definitely something I was considering,” said Adams. “I was considering everything at the moment. I was in a dark place. Not on anything suicidal, but definitely in a lot of dark times as far as getting away from the game of football, getting away from people. At the time I wasn’t really talking to many people, wasn’t answering my phone. So you go through real life situations in this game of football.”

Adams is finally ready to return to game action and says he’s looking forward to being back in action.

“I haven’t hit anybody in a long time,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it, man, I’ll tell you that. I won’t take a play for granted. I won’t take a moment or a second for granted. Just to be able to fly on a plane with my teammates is going to be big for me. Just to be able to come up here and speak is big for me. Just to be able to sit down in the seats when Pete’s up here in team meetings is big for me. I wasn’t able to sit down in a seat for 20-plus weeks, so it’s a real humbling experience that I went through.

“My mindset is a lot sharper. The details of what I went through, nobody could honestly understand unless you’ve been through it. It’s definitely something that I don’t wish on anybody, but I made it out. I’m just looking forward to the journey. I’m looking forward to the season. I’m excited to be back.”

Adams, 27, 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. Seattle later signed him to a four-year, $70 million extension in August of 2021. 

In 2022, Adams appeared in one game for the Seahawks and recorded three tackles and a pass defense.