Pete Carroll: Seahawks preparing for Jamal Adams’ return in 2024

SEATTLE – Jamal Adams’ season is over.

His Seahawks career will carry over into 2024.

That is how Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider described the team’s future plans for Adams on Sunday, a day after the safety was placed on injured reserve.

Adams missed virtually all of the 2022 season because of a major knee injury, and Adams and Carroll acknowledged repeatedly that he was still not fully healthy this season.

“To me, it’s a heart breaker,” Carroll said Sunday evening. “He did everything he could. He tried so hard to get right, get back. He just couldn’t make it all the way back.”

The 28-year-old Adams, who in 2021 signed a four-year contract extension with the Seahawks making him, at the time, the league’s highest-paid safety, appeared in just nine games this season.

He last played in the Dec. 10 loss at San Francisco. Carroll hoped some downtime the past couple weeks would allow Adams the chance to return.

“We came to the conclusion together that he couldn’t get right, couldn’t get full speed, couldn’t put his foot in the ground (and cut),” Carroll said after the Seahawks’ loss to the Steelers. “I admire the heck out of him. He did everything he could. He busted his tail throughout the whole time with the right attitude, and it was really hard to have to get to the point where you go, ‘Yeah, I’m not able to get back.’ ”

Schneider expressed a similar sentiment earlier Sunday in his regular pregame radio interview, noting that Adams had “such a bad injury.” Schneider was hopeful that, without a major surgery to rehab, Adams would be able to have “his best offseason” and return fully healthy to open the 2024 season.

That would seem to indicate the Seahawks intend to have Adams on the roster next season. There had been some speculation that the team could cut ties with Adams, who has a $26.9 million cap hit in 2024 (and a $20.8 million dead-cap hit).

Carroll, when asked a specific follow-up question about plans for Adams next year, said he is confident Adams will return healthy.

“This is an injury that takes more than the time we had (this season),” Carroll said.

Walker aggravates shoulder injury; Lucas, Brown exit

Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III aggravated an injury to his shoulder in the second half of Sunday’s loss to the Steelers and did not return.

The Seahawks also played the second half without two starting offensive linemen after center Evan Brown (concussion) and right tackle Abraham Lucas (knee) were ruled out with injuries. The Seahawks turned to Stone Forsythe at right tackle and rookie fifth-round pick Olu Oluwatimi at center.

Carroll did not have an immediate update on the injured players after the game.

“We’ll have to figure out what’s going on with them (for) next week,” Carroll said.

Walker, listed as questionable coming into the game with the injured shoulder, had a productive game in limited touches, rushing for 53 yards on 10 carries, scoring the Seahawks’ first touchdown on a 13-yard run in the second quarter.

Walker headed to the locker room with trainers during the second half. He returned to the sideline, with his helmet on, but he did not return to the field in the fourth quarter.

“It sounded like he kind of wrenched it a little bit,” Carroll said. “I don’t think he reinjured it as much as he just didn’t have enough power to come back.”

Seahawks say Clark could returnThe decision Saturday to waive Frank Clark seemed to signal the end of his Seahawks career.

Schneider and Carroll said Sunday that Clark could return.

Both said Clark, 30, was waived with the team needing to do some roster juggling, and with Clark knowing he was going to be inactive. Clark has been a healthy scratch two of the last three games and was set to be so again Sunday. He was declared out Friday with the rare designation of being a resting player.

“Just got down in numbers,” Carroll said. “Frankie did a nice job for us coming in early and all that, and he knows he’s still available if we need him. We’re really competing for roster spots to get the right guys on the field and all that. I really appreciate all of the play that Frankie gave us over the years. He’s been a great Seahawk. He could see what was going on, and so he helped us out with this one.”

Clark was a second-round pick of the Seahawks in 2015 and had 35 sacks in four seasons in 2015-18, which is 10th in team history.

He returned in October to add depth following the loss for the season of Uchenna Nwosu.

Clark could not duplicate the success of his first Seattle stint as he did not have a sack or quarterback hit in six games, with just six tackles. He played just seven snaps (against the Eagles) since the loss to Dallas on Nov. 30.

Witherspoon rusty in returnRookie first-round pick Devon Witherspoon, out for the past two games, played exclusively as the nickelback in his return from a hip injury Sunday.

He had a missed tackle in the game’s first series, but came back with a key 5-yard tackle for loss of Steelers running back Jaylen Warren in the second half.

“He’d been out for a couple of weeks now, and I don’t think he was as sharp as he’s been,” Carroll said. “ But it was good to have him back.”