Will the 49ers Regret not Trading for Jamal Adams?

There was a bit of doom and gloom on July 25 when the Seattle Seahawks acquired All Pro safety Jamal Adams. It is never good fortune when a division rival reels in elite talent. The matchup with the Seahawks will become increasingly difficult now for the San Francisco 49ers.

Seattle was not the only team in the market for Adams. My editor Grant Cohn had reported since mid-June that the 49ers were interested in Adams' services. Whether the 49ers made a legitimate offer or not is not confirmed.

Nevertheless, the 49ers were doing their homework on Adams and considered adding him to their already stacked roster. General manager John Lynch and the front office would not be doing their job if they didn't conduct their due diligence on the possibility of bringing in Adams.

And even though Lynch stated to NBC Sports Bay Area that they were never in the Adams sweepstakes, I would not take his words at face value.

With Seattle acquiring Adams, they now close the talent gap a bit between themselves and the 49ers. Scheming against a defense with Adams is going to demand Kyle Shanahan's best and likely create frustrations.

Now that Adams is in Seattle, will the 49ers regret not trading for Adams?

Not one bit.

The Seahawks emptied their savings account for Adams by sacrificing a 2021 and 2022 first-round pick, along with a 2021 third-round pick. That is way too high of a price for a safety.

A move like this is a message by the Seahawks that they are in win-now mode. They are putting all their chips towards the middle of the table to maximize the window they have with Russell Wilson.

Year after year, the Seahawks waste Wilson's talent by falling short in the playoffs. Their belief is that Adams can get them over the hump to bring them closer, if not to a Super Bowl. That is quite a lot of pressure on Adams' shoulders, but for a player who wants to be paid the highest at his position - the pressure is valid.

While I can admire the aggressive nature of Seattle, the only way they can defend this move is if they can actually reach the Super Bowl. And even with Adams, they are not better than the 49ers, not even close.

This trade reminds me so much of when the Los Angeles Rams acquired Jalen Ramsey thinking he was the missing ingredient to their success in 2019.

How foolish were they for that?

Now the Seahawks are mirroring that foolishness by taking Adams off of the Jets' books. Seattle may be dramatically better in 2020 and maybe even in 2021. But they mortgaged the future just for a season or two of good football. Not to mention that Adams still wants the Brinks truck parked in his driveway in 2021.

And with the salary cap lowered over the next four seasons, the contracts of Wilson and Adams is going to drain their resources. There is no way they are going to sustain their success, especially with the way general manager John Schneider whiffs in the draft.

Meanwhile in Santa Clara, the 49ers are building their ship to sail beyond one or two seasons. Trading for Adams would have helped them in the short-term, but that isn't worth the sacrifice to them. That is likely why the 49ers were reportedly showing interest just to see what it would take.

I will even go as far as to say they showed interest and stayed with it to bump up the price for Adams, because they knew Seattle wanted him. The NFL is a game of chess, not checkers. Remembering that thinking multiple steps ahead is what the coaches and front-office people do makes everything clearer.

Besides, safety is not a need for the 49ers. Why give up so much capital to improve a satisfied position? A move like that is what you see in the Madden video game. Don't fix what isn't broken, in my humble opinion.

The San Francisco 49ers were wise to stay away from Adams.