After much back and forth the past few weeks, Jamal Adams and the Seattle Seahawks have agreed to a four year contract worth $70 million in new money that will tie Adams to Seattle through 2025. The contract has a maximum value of $72 million and $38 million in guarantees.
The $17.5 million annual value on the contract is a raise of 14.7% over the Justin Simmons contract signed earlier this year. As we had discussed earlier this type of raise would be somewhat in line with some of the more traditional market movers at various positions and represents a pretty fair value for Adams either on an extension or as a free agent. Adams $38 million in guarantees will also be a record for safety, surpassing the $35 million guarantee for Simmons by $3 million.
This was about as high as the Seahawks could go on an offer within the current framework of their team and the league. This was a much better move for Adams than playing the franchise tag game and then hoping at 29 there would be a massive market for him in free agency. The only question is why this took this long as a deal like this should have been finalized long ago.
I would expect this contract to help pull the safety market up with Jessie Bates of the Bengals likely the top player to immediately benefit, I would also anticipate that Tyrann Mathieu of the Chiefs will now have a target price of $18 million a year on a new contract. As we get more details of the contract we will update Adams cap figures.