With training camp mere days away and a warm July afternoon burning away, Jamal Adams finally got the news he had been pining to receive on this past summer Saturday.
Just as Adams got what he wanted, so too did the Seattle Seahawks, who sent a pair of first-round picks in a big package east to the New York Jets to bring the services of the All-Pro safety to the Pacific Northwest. It was a move Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is more than happy to come to fruition.
"We're really pumped about it," Carroll said Monday, per SiriusXM NFL Radio. "It's so difficult to get a great player on your team, and when you have that opportunity, and you've got to take a good look at -- [Seahawks general manager] John Schneider did a fantastic job of following through this process. He and his guys worked all the way throughout to stay involved with this thing so that we would have a chance with really the simple thought, 'How could we ever get a player of this magnitude on our team?' We've been drafting in the low-20s and the 30s or something forever, and that pick has never allowed us that kind of opportunity.
"And so, John did an incredible job, and I think this is another statement for John Schneider, man. He has done such a remarkable job for so many years. He's got the chutzpah go for it, and he did it again. And I'm just -- we're all fired up about it and looking forward to Jamal [Adams] coming to our club.”
Though talent -- most notably linebacker Bobby Wagner -- still remains on the Seattle defense, it is coming off one of its worst seasons statistically in Carroll's tenure.
Now, all of a sudden, they have the 24-year-old Adams, a two-time Pro Bowl selection who is the only NFL player currently with 10 or more sacks and 25 or more passes defended, per NFL Research. Able to line up at either safety spot, up on the line, at linebacker and just about anywhere on the field, he's a young and versatile talent.
Being able to acquire Adams wasn't a quick fix or a quick turn of events, though.
Carroll said it's been quite a long time coming.
"We're competing in every one of these opportunities," Carroll said. "So this discussion, this conversation started months ago, and so -- sorry about the airplane -- it started months ago, and it's just taken a long journey to get to this point. And it took vision and foresight, and really, the guts to hang in there, and really, the courage to make a big move like this. It's hard for teams to make a big move, but John had -- and we were concentrating on this thing, and so he went for it and pulled the trigger, and then we got it done. So it's been a long time.”
And now the Seahawks' defense feels as if it's instantly improved, while the Jets are once again rebuilding.
For Carroll, it was as simple as taking a chance on getting a great player mattering more than anything.