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Sometimes you have to read between the lines:
Gregg Williams said a couple of things today during his Zoom Press Conference that I want to take a deep dive into.
First of all, he made news with something he said, that turned out to be top story on both ESPN.com and NFL.com. The money quote that grabbed the attention of many was Williams saying about Jamal Adams going to Seattle: “Jamal may get bored (in Seattle) because they don’t use their safety-type things and all the different complexities of maybe not showing what they are doing as much as we do.”
What he is saying here is pretty simple. With the Jets, Williams moved Adams around a lot, like a chess piece, sending him on a lot of run and pass blitzes.
What he’s going to do in Seattle isn’t as involved. Pete Carroll likes to keep it simple and just likes his guys to fly around making plays. So Adams isn’t going be moved around the chess board in Seattle as he was with the Jets.
Also, the biggest reason Seattle traded for him was to get a guy who can bring that Kam Chancellor-element back to their defense. Chancellor was an excellent safety for the Seahawks, an integral part of the “Legion of Boom” defense that helped take Seattle to a pair of Super Bowls. He was forced to retire in 2017 due to a neck injury. He was an enforcer who was terrific against the run. Seattle’s run defense hasn’t been the same without him, and last year they were downright terrible. So Carroll feels Adams can bring that Chancellor-element back to his defense.
Something else Williams said about Adams and replacing him was worth noting:
“We will highlight the people we have here and as you saw, what we did there was (Adams) had maybe his most productive year here because of how we highlighted the skill set that he’s had and I’ve had a lot of really, really good guys at that position over the years, I’ve had a lot of really good safeties to be able to build things around and now it’s next man up,” Williams said.
In other words, what Williams is saying, is that he has good history with safeties (8th-round pick Blaine Bishop in Tennessee is a perfect example), where he brings out the best in their skill set by using them correctly.
Williams did a terrific job last year “highlighting the skill set” that Jamal has. In other words, playing in the box and blitzing a lot, and not asking him to do too much in coverage.
Adams is an outstanding run support safety who also does a nice job as a blitzer, but is average in coverage.
And since he’s average in coverage, it’s pretty impressive that Jets GM Joe Douglas was able to land two first-round picks, a third-round pick and a starting safety (Bradley McDougald) for him. You can’t ask Adams to play the deep middle of the field, because he will have issues. He has some hip stiffness that hurts his transitional quickness.
He’s a good player, but needs to be used right.
And Williams did a heck of job using him right last year.
August 13, 2020
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