Jamal Adams

Jamal Lee Adams (born October 17, 1995) is an American football safety who is a free agent.

Adams played in all 13 games with two starts as a true freshman at LSU in 2014 and had 66 tackles and a sack.

As a sophomore, he was a second-team All-Southeastern Conference selection as a safety by the Associated Press (AP) and SEC coaches.

As a junior, Adams was named to the AP All-SEC first-team.

He played college football for the LSU Tigers, and was drafted sixth overall in the 2017 NFL Draft by the New York Jets.

Adams quickly became an impactful starter for the Jets, making the Pro Bowl twice and being named an All-Pro.

In 2021, Adams signed a four-year extension with the Seahawks valued at $72 million, with a $20 million signing bonus and $38 million guaranteed, making him the highest paid safety in the NFL at that time.

Adams attended Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas.

While there, he played high school football.

During his final two years, he had 138 tackles and seven interceptions on defense and 20 touchdowns on offense.

In his senior year, Hebron finished 8–4 on the season, advancing to the UIL 5A Division II Area final at AT&T Stadium, where they lost 42–21 to Cedar Hill.

Adams was rated by Scout.com as a five-star recruit and among the top 10 recruits in his class.

He committed to Louisiana State University (LSU) to play college football.

On January 6, 2017, Adams announced that he would forgo his senior season and enter the 2017 NFL Draft.

Coming out of college, Adams was invited to the NFL Combine and performed all the available drills.

On May 4, 2017, Adams attended LSU's pro day and opted to run the 40-yard dash (4.33s) and was able to improve on his combine numbers significantly.

He was projected to be a first-round pick by the majority of analysts and scouts.

Sports Illustrated, DraftScout.com, Pro Football Focus, and ESPN ranked Adams the top safety in the draft.

The New York Jets selected Adams in the first round with the sixth overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.

He was the first defensive back selected in 2017.

On July 20, 2017, the Jets signed Adams to a fully guaranteed four-year, $22.25 million contract that included a $14.32 million signing bonus.

Adams entered training camp competing against Calvin Pryor and fellow rookie Marcus Maye for a role as a starting safety.

Head coach Todd Bowles named Adams the starting strong safety to begin the regular season, alongside free safety Maye.

Adams made his professional regular season debut and first career start in the Jets season-opener versus the Buffalo Bills and recorded five combined tackles and deflected a pass in a 21–12 loss.

Adams made his first career tackle on running back Mike Tolbert after his 13-yard run on the Bills' first drive.

On September 24, Adams recorded two solo tackles, broke up a pass, and made his first career sack on quarterback Jay Cutler during a 20–6 win against the Miami Dolphins.

In Week 17, he collected a season-high 10 combined tackles (three solo) and a pass deflection in the Jets' 26–6 loss to the New England Patriots.

Adams finished his rookie season in 2017 with 83 combined tackles (63 solo), six pass deflections, and two sacks in 16 games and 16 starts.

Adams was named a captain on the Jets' roster for the 2018 season.

He got his first career interception off of Matt Cassel at the Jets' season opener versus the Detroit Lions.

The Jets ultimately won the game 48–17.

Adams finished his second season with 115 tackles, 3.5 sacks, three forced fumbles with one recovered fumble, and one interception and started all 16 games.

On December 18, Adams was named a Pro Bowl selection for the first time in his career.

Adams was named Defensive MVP of the game.

Adams became notorious after an incident where he tackled the Patriots mascot at a 2019 Pro Bowl practice.

This was due to the fierce rivalry of the Jets and Patriots.

Adams apologized and let the Patriots mascot tackle him back.

Adams was also named Second-team AP All-Pro during this season.

On December 28, Adams was named Curtis Martin Team MVP.

Before the 2019 season, Adams was ranked 37th among his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 2019 list.