Jamal Adams signs with Titans 4 months after release by Seahawks

SEATTLE – Jamal Adams was released by the Seahawks in March, but the door remained open for a potential return, albeit at a much-reduced salary and smaller role from his previous four years with the Seahawks.

Any chance of Adams returning ended Thursday when it was announced he signed with the Tennessee Titans.

Reports stated Adams signed a one-year deal with the Titans. Other terms were not immediately announced.

Adams and fellow starting safety Quandre Diggs were released by the Seahawks in early March in a move designed to clear out cap space before the free-agent signing period.

Adams had two years left on a four-year deal worth $72 million he signed in Aug. 2021 and included cap hits of $26.9 million and $27.9 million the next two seasons. The Seahawks are taking a dead cap hit — a penalty for money already paid Adams — of $20.83 million this season but otherwise are free of any further financial obligation to him.

A source close to the situation told the Times in May that the Seahawks and Adams remained in contact about the possibility of a return. Any return would likely have seen Adams play primarily weak side linebacker instead of the safety position he manned the last four seasons.

It’s unclear what Tennessee has planned for Adams, who is now 28.

What is clear is that barring a reunion down the road, the book is officially closed on a trade that will forever go down as one of the more star-crossed in team history — if not regarded as simply among the most worst in terms of the risk and reward.

The Seahawks traded a package that included two first-round picks (2021, 2022) to the Jets for Adams in the summer of 2020, envisioning him as a player who could bring the kind of physicality and playmaking the secondary had been missing since the Legion of Boom began to break up following the 2017 season.

Adams, the sixth-overall pick of the Jets in 2017 out of LSU, made the Pro Bowl in 2018 and 2019 and was a first-team All-Pro pick in 2019, the year before he was acquired by the Seahawks. The Jets made him available with the two sides at an impasse over his contract.

The deal looked good initially as Adams set an NFL record for sacks by a defensive back in 2020 with 9.5 as the Seahawks finished 12-4 — tied for the third-most wins in a single season in team history — and won the NFC West. Adams made the Pro Bowl and was named a second-team All-Pro.

That helped compel the Seahawks to re-sign Adams to a contract that made him the highest-paid safety in NFL history.

That was pretty much the end of the highlights of the relationship for either the Seahawks or Adams.

A spate of injuries meant Adams played just 22 games the next three seasons after signing that deal, including missing all but one game in 2022 when he suffered a torn quad muscle in the season opener against Denver Broncos.

His on-field production also suffered. He had no sacks his final three seasons when he gave up some notable big plays in pass coverage. That was accompanied by a few non-playing controversies, including a fine from the league of $50,000 for interfering with a doctor on the sidelines attempting to conduct a concussion protocol procedure on receiver Jake Bobo in a loss at Cincinnati.

All of that means his future in Seattle already seemed in question following the 2023 season even before the team dismissed Pete Carroll and brought in Mike Macdonald as the new head coach.

The Seahawks signed veteran Rayshawn Jenkins to pair with Julian Love as their new safety combination, while signing K’Von Wallace as a reserve. They also used 2023 draftee Coby Bryant as a safety during the offseason program.

Love typically played the free safety spot manned by Diggs (who remains unsigned) the past few years with Jenkins playing the strong safety spot generally occupied by Adams.

As noted, if Adams had returned it was likely to be as a weakside linebacker. The Seahawks have veteran Jerome Baker — formerly of Miami — in line to start at that spot, and they used rookie fourth-round pick Tyrice Knight there during the offseason program as well as second-year player Patrick O’Connell.

In Tennessee, Adams joins a secondary that has undergone a vast reconstruction under new head coach Brian Callahan, who replaced longtime coach Mike Vrabel.

He joins a familiar face in new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, who was the Jets’ defensive backs coach from 2017-20, coaching Adams during his first three years in the NFL.

It won’t take long for Adams and the Seahawks to reunite on the field. They travel to Nashville in mid-August to conduct two joint practices with the Titans before playing at Tennessee in a preseason game on Aug. 17.