Pete Carroll on what Jamal Adams brings to the Seahawks defense: 'He's not bringing Gregg Williams'
Pete Carroll took a little shot at New York Jets defensive coordinator Gregg Williams on Thursday, in the process inviting more back-and-forth between the two.
The smack talk from Carroll came on Seattle sports radio station when the Seattle Seahawks head coach made an appearance on Dave Mahler and Dick Fain’s show. His zinger against Williams came just hours after the Jets defensive coordinator said that Adams might get bored in Seattle’s defense. It was a clear bit of fun from Carroll who was hamming it up with the jovial hosts.
Adams was traded in late July by the Jets to the Seahawks in a blockbuster deal. Carroll was asked what Adams, an All-Pro safety, brings to the defense.
“Well he’s not bringing Gregg Williams with him, that’s for sure. C’mon Gregg, fire back, let’s have some fun with this,” Carroll said on Seattle sports radio station KJR on Thursday.
“He is a very versatile football player and there’s a bunch of stuff he can do. I have had the good fortune of coaching some really good safeties over the years. There’s reason to believe that this guy can do just about anything all the things those guys have ever done. That’s the cool part of his game that be brings. Let’s see how that all works out when we get to the ball games.”
On a Wednesday conference call with the Jets media, Williams took the not-so-subtle shot at the Seahawks defense. It was a bit unsolicited and out of nowhere.
“Jamal may get bored there because they don’t use their safety type things and complexities and maybe not showing what they’re doing as much as we do. We’ll still do the same pattern of things, we’ll still do a lot of the same exact things,” Williams said. “But we’ll highlight the people we have here. As you saw what we did there was, [Adams] had maybe his productive year here because we highlighted the skillsets he had. And I’ve had a lot of really, really good guys at that position over the year, had a lot of really good safeties to build things around. Now, it’s next man up. We’ll fit them into here and we have some good skill levels, skill sets here that we can capitalize on.”
In his first year under Williams, Adams developed into an elite defensive player. He had 75 tackles and 6.5 sacks, making the Pro Bowl for a second-straight season and earning his first All-Pro nod.
For a Seattle team desperate to upgrade their backend, Adams could put the unit and the team over the top in the NFC West.
“He brings a smile to my face. He’s really sharp, he’s really competitive, in that he really cares. He wants to know all the details. He wants to be corrected, he wants be to helped, taught, coached all that,” Carroll said this week during his press conference.
“He’s got the kind of focus – he has a unique focus that some of the great players we’ve had have demonstrated. I just know he’s the real deal.”
Carroll also added in his assessment on Adams that he is a rare combination of talent and work ethic - “he’s not too full of himself. He wants to be a great player, again, but he wants to work for it.”
