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» » Film room: What kind of impact would a do-it-all safety like Jamal Adams have in the Cowboys' defense? - The Dallas Morning News

Film room: What kind of impact would a do-it-all safety like Jamal Adams have in the Cowboys' defense? - The Dallas Morning News

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Another year and another offseason where the Dallas Cowboys are doing the tango with an elite safety.

Last offseason, it was Earl Thomas, who famously went to the Cowboys locker room the year before to say, “If y’all have the chance, come get me.” Much to the chagrin of the fanbase, the Cowboys didn’t go get Thomas last year when he was available in free agency, allowing Baltimore to swoop in and sign the best free safety the league has seen since Ed Reed.

This year, the Cowboys could have their eyes set on a Troy Polamalu type, as New York Jets safety Jamal Adams recently requested a trade from the team that drafted him. The Cowboys’ interest in the Lewisville native dates back to last season, when Dallas reportedly offered a first-rounder and Day 3 pick for the disgruntled star.

The Jets nixed that trade, but who knows what could happen now with the two-time All-Pro putting pressure on the franchise to trade him. One thing that certainly helps the Cowboys is that they were on Adams’ initial list of teams that wouldn’t require an immediate contract extension to get him to play, which would provide Dallas with the time and flexibility required to fit in a new Adams contract on top of a massive extension for Dak Prescott.

Nonetheless, the million-dollar question right now is what kind of impact would Adams have on the Cowboys defense, as that will inform Dallas to the level of compensation they’d be OK parting with to acquire Adams.

Let’s step into the film room to find out:

Do-It-All safety

Before we get into his individual traits, one of Adams’ biggest selling points is his versatility on defense. Adams is one of the unique safeties who can align any and everywhere on defense.

In the last two seasons, Adams has played 889 snaps in the box (42.7%), 578 snaps at free safety (27.8%), 303 snaps in the slot (14.5%), 234 snaps on the line of scrimmage (11.2%) and 74 snaps at outside cornerback (3.5%), grading well at each spot.

The term “multiple” has come up frequently when discussing the defensive schemes Mike Nolan is going to implement on the Cowboys defense, and there’s literally no safety who is a better fit for a multiple scheme defense than Adams, as he’s proven himself to be capable with myriad alignments and responsibilities on defense. He’s outstanding in run support, an effective pass rusher when blitzed, very good in coverage and a reliable tackler

Outstanding run support

While he does so much more, Adams often gets labeled a “box safety” by lazy fans and analysts because of his skill and impact when defending the run. Over the last two seasons, Adams ranks first in the NFL in run stops (80) and top-10 in tackling efficiency among safeties, per Pro Football Focus.

Adams displays outstanding football intelligence and processing ability from the box, as he understands how to read and react to blocking schemes without undoing the innate structure of the defense. Adams isn’t someone who looks to frequently play hero ball, as he makes sound plays within the structure of the defense, which leads to fewer busts in the run and pass games. Here’s a great example:

It may not look like much, but Adams won this rep with his first step. When the ball is snapped, notice how Adams reads the initial movement of the offensive line before taking a quick gather step inside. This enables Adams to maintain inside leverage and ruin the tight end’s angle to block him at the second level. If Adams was a little bit slower to react or maintained his pre-snap alignment a little bit longer, the tight end would have been able to cross Adams’ face and impede his progress toward the ball carrier.

From there, Adams does well to stay square while tracking the running back’s inside hip to prevent the cutback as he pursues down the line of scrimmage. Once the running back puts his foot in the ground to cut upfield, Adams is in perfect position to accelerate through the line of scrimmage to make a “hog-tie” tackle.

Adams’ awareness of blocks and ability to sneak by them is a huge reason why he’s so effective in run support. There is a number of safeties who can pile-up tackles when they’re unblocked, but Adams is only one of a couple who can still make an impact even when opposing blockers try to get their hands on him. This play is a great illustration:

Here, it’s clear that Adams was ready for this New England run concept, as he read it like a book from pre-snap to post-snap. Once the ball is snapped, Adams immediately whips his eyes toward the WR, who is trying to pin him inside to open up a C-gap running lane for the RB.

Instead of taking on the block to clog his gap and force the RB to bounce outside, Adams takes a justifiable risk in attempting to penetrate and make a play in the backfield instead. Adams does this by temporarily turning perpendicular to the line of scrimmage to “get skinny” and penetrate the receiver’s block. Because Adams didn’t give the receiver his chest, the receiver had nowhere to latch onto Adams’ frame, making it near-impossible for the receiver to impede Adams’ progress.

From there, Adams stays fundamentally sound by immediately working to get back square after penetrating, which enables him to clog his gap and be in a balanced enough position to make another “hog-tie” tackle.

Adams loves to use that “hog-tie” tackle to immediately impede the progress of ball carries on contact. Moreover, it takes Adams’ head largely out of the tackle, which lessens the concerns of future concussions for someone who’s around the ball as much as Adams.

Additionally, Adams’ impact as a run defender is only felt when he’s the one making the tackle, as Adams isn’t above doing the dirty work to complement the rest of the defense. This is a great example:

This is a relatively simple play, but it shows how Adams routinely gets the details right, which enables the overall defensive unit to be more sound fundamentally as well. Adams is aligned over the top of the tight end in man coverage on this play, but once New England shows run, Adams quickly accelerates forward to fill the open C-gap.

Notice how Adams modifies his pursuit angle as he flies forward to fill his run fit. Adams intelligently makes sure to maintain outside leverage in an attempt to force the RB to cut back into the teeth of the defense. If Adams came downhill at a more direct angle, the RB could have potentially bounced the ball outside, where there were few defenders to help finish the tackle. Even when Adams doesn’t make the tackle, his impact is felt on the team’s overall run defense.

Effective blitzer

Since entering the league, Adams has been one of the best blitzing safeties in the NFL — against both the run and pass.

Against the run, Adams times up his blitzes so well that he can often penetrate the line of scrimmage without being blocked. This goes to show how perceptive Adams is of snap counts throughout games because it’d be impossible to be as consistently effective as a run-blitzer if he didn’t have a keen understanding of the opposing team’s snap cadence.

Adams truly separates himself from every other safety in the league as a rusher when asked to blitz against the pass. Adams has an innate feel of how to attack the weaknesses in the line’s protection and is simply too physical for opposing running backs in pass protection.

Since 2006, Adams is the only safety in the league to finish a season with 20-plus pressures, and he’s done it each of the last two seasons (2018: 22 | 2019: 25).

There was a legitimate argument that Adams was the best pass rusher on the Jets last season. In late-November, Adams had the 2nd-best pass-rush win rate in the NFL and the highest pressure rate, per PFF’s Sam Monson, who added in the detail that, over the last two seasons, Adams has the same pass rush win rate as Dee Ford.

What’s even scarier is that Adams still has room to improve as a blitzer. Adams has a tendency to utilize momentum and physicality to bulldoze through blockers (running backs and offensive linemen alike) — just as he did in the above clip against the Giants — when he’d be better off skillfully working his way past blockers with some simple pass-rush moves. If Adams can add a bit more finesse to his physical pass-rush repertoire, he could be even more productive as a blitzer, which would be a nightmare for offensive coordinators around the NFL.

More than a “box safety”

The reason why it’s disrespectful to call Adams simply a box safety — other than the fact that he plays all over the defense and not just in the box — is that the connotation of “box safety” paints the picture of someone who thrives in run support but struggles in coverage.

Jeff Heath is a box safety while a more appropriate description of Adams would be a “do-it-all safety.” Now, he’s not going to get mistaken for Earl Thomas or Ed Reed anytime soon — why would a team align Adams as a deep free safety 75% of the time when he can thrive from so many different looks and alignments — but he is one of the better NFL safeties in coverage.

In each of the last two seasons, QBs have had a pass rating below 80 when targeting Adams in coverage (2018: 67.3 | 2019: 79.1). The league-wide average for safeties tends to hover in the 90s during a given year (it was 93.6 in 2018, for example). Additionally, Adams finished with the lowest reception percentage allowed among the 64 starting safeties in 2018 (50%).

Adams’ versatility holds true in coverage, as he’s effective in both man and zone coverage.

Comfortable in zone coverage

Because he plays around the box a good bit, Adams will find himself in intermediate zone coverage often, where he’s responsible for the middle hook or curl/flat zones in accordance with the called coverage. In those situations, Adams displays outstanding vision and awareness that enables him to take away QB reads, contest the catch point and limit the yards accumulated after the catch on underneath throws. Here’s a phenomenal example:

On this play, the Lions are facing a 2nd-and-medium while the Jets are playing a drop-eight variation of Cover 3 where Adams is responsible for the strong-side flat zone. Once the ball is snapped, the Lions look to stress Adams’ zone by running a “sail” concept toward Adams’ side of the field, where the outside WR runs a clear-out route to occupy the CB while the RB runs a shoot route to the flats and runs a narrow corner route to the near-pylon.

The RB’s shoot route and the slot’s narrow corner route are designed to flood Adams’ zone, forcing him into a tough decision. If Adams immediately gains depth and covers the slot, then the RB is wide open in the flats for an easy first down. If Adams covers the RB, then the slot is open for an easy touchdown. The concept was developed to always make the defender in Adams’ position wrong.

Nonetheless, instead of immediately covering up either route, Adams puts himself in position to somehow cover both routes. The RB is the most immediate threat, so Adams makes sure to widen with the RB as he darts to the flats initially. However, instead of flying forward to cover the RB, Adams hangs back just beyond the sticks while reading the QB’s eyes, which would put him in a good position to come forward and tackle the RB before the first-down markers if the ball is thrown that way.

From there, the QB’s eyes take Adams to the slot receiver’s corner route, as Adams expertly flips his hips, drives and collides with the receiver to jar the ball loose and force the incompletion in the red zone. There may be five players in the entire league, regardless of position, who have the football intelligence, processor and athletic ability to make that play, but Adams is one, and it’s a strong indication as to how Adams adds value in intermediate zone coverage.

Contrary to popular opinion, Adams is also very effective in deep zone coverage as well, as he does an excellent job limiting the voids in coverage between the linebackers and safeties. Here’s an example:

Here, the Jets are playing a split-safety coverage where Adams is the deep safety to the near side of the field. Once the ball is snapped, Adams puts himself in the proper position to stay over the top of both routes to his side of the field. The Colts are trying to fit in a pass to the seam in between Adams and the linebackers. However, Adams is too quick to break on the pass, forcing an incompletion.

Notice how Adams made a break on the pass before it leaves the QB’s hands. That’s the key to safeties making plays from deep zone coverage.

While it’s true that his 4.5 speed limits his range a tad in a single-high safety role, Adams doesn’t receive his due credit for his deep zone coverage abilities because he doesn’t align deep on the majority of snaps and when he does, teams don’t like to test him deep, which is the best indication as to Adams’ ability in deep zone coverage. If he wasn’t comfortable there, teams would look to attack him when he does align deep, but they don’t for the most part. For example, the longest completion made on Adams last year was just 21 yards — the fourth-lowest among starting safeties last year.

Underrated in man coverage

While Adams is very good in zone coverage, his ability to blanket tight ends in man coverage may be even more valuable to a Cowboys defense that lost its TE-stopper [Byron Jones] in free agency.

Through his last two seasons, Adams has proven to be one of the better TE-stoppers in the NFL going up against some of the best tight ends the NFL has to offer.

In 2018, Adams did an excellent job when pitted against the league’s best TE in Rob Gronkowski. New England tried to challenge Adams twice is man-coverage against Gronk in the red zone, but neither was successful:

On both plays, Adams did an excellent job playing with inside leverage to influence and squeeze Gronk to the sideline in an effort to make it a tougher throw for Tom Brady. Moreover, Adams does well to stay on top of Gronk because he knows he doesn’t have safety help, meaning he will play both routes from the top-down. And finally, notice how Adams initiates contact to prevent the back shoulder throw while also limiting Gronk’s ability to create late separation with a push-off.

Both reps were picture-perfect in terms of technique, though Adams should have been more aggressive in attacking the football in the first clip instead of allowing Gronk to play DB and prevent the interception.

Adams is so effective against tight ends because he’s one of the few defensive backs who understands how to jockey for position at the catch point. Most DBs lack the strength and body awareness to prevent tight ends from boxing them out at the catch point, but not Adams.

Adams also does a great job in press-man coverage on in-line tight ends. Adams’ strength enables him to slow the TEs release, which disrupts the timing of the play and enabled Adams to slid into the proper position to contest the pass.

Intangibles

It’s impossible to discuss Adams’ value without also mentioning his passion and leadership ability. Adams is one of the most competitive players in the NFL, and he plays with a fire unlike most others on game day. He’s the type of catalytic presence that can change the identity of a defense.

One thing you will notice in all of these clips is how Adams’ eyes are always in the right place pre- and post-snap, which indicates that he puts in the necessary hours in the practice, meeting and film rooms to understand the opposing offense of that week. He puts his teammates in the proper positions and is always identifying pre-snap tendencies that will help make plays post-snap. Adams often gets lauded his passion and leadership, but he’s as cerebral as they come at the safety position.

Final Thoughts

So how valuable is Jamal Adams?

In my opinion, he’s one of the most valuable defenders the NFL has to offer, but don’t take my word for it. Adams has been one of the most valuable non-QBs in the NFL, per PFF WAR.

Still not enough? Look at what the Jets defense looked like with and without Adams last year:

The Jets defense run/pass success and explosive play rates rose significantly with Adams off the field in 2019, which is just another indication as to Adams’ impact on the field.

If Dallas’ defense is indeed as multiple as we’ve been led to believe, then Adams would be the perfect type of player to inject into the defense. His presence could enable Dallas to disguise its looks to constantly change the pre- and post-snap pictures for opposing QBs.

Adams is one of the NFL’s best safeties and the Cowboys would be unwise to not make a significant run at the two-time Pro Bowler, even if it costs a first-round pick and some change.

Find more Cowboys stories from The Dallas Morning News here.

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