The price tag to acquire safety Jamal Adams was high…..really high. The Seahawks gave up two first round picks, a third round and safety Bradley McDougald for Adams and a fourth. That my friends is what we call an “all in move.” Clearly the Seahawks believe that they can squeak out a Super Bowl this season. They were really good last year and you need to capitalize on the best of Russell Wilson’s years.
ESPN did a nice piece on whether or not a safety is worth that big of a haul. The result was no, and safety is not a high enough value. On the Seahawks though Adams will play in the box similar to Cam Chancellor and our own guy Vonn Bell. The dude makes tackles and creates turnovers so you can begin to think of him as an ad hoc linebacker/safety hybrid.
This is certainly a trade that the Bengals would not do. Sure we would happily dump a disgruntled player for the haul that the Seahawks gave up. If we were on the edge of a Super Bowl run though would Mike and Duke go all in like this? If they felt that Adams was the missing link on the defense then why not maybe, but it would be an un-Bengal move. Instead we would keep the picks and find someone in the draft and use the other first round pick on another position of need. It would be cheaper, younger and prolong how many shots you have with Joe Burrow to make a Super Bowl run.
On one hand I applaud the Seahawks for going all in and believing they can defeat the Chiefs or Ravens in the Super Bowl in 2021. On the other hand they are mortgaging their future and with the cap likely to go down in 2021 it could put them in the danger zone.