Jamal Adams: A Blitz Boy For A Blitzing DC

They’ve been calling Jamal Adams “Blitz Boy” for years.

In 2020, the Seahawks traded two first-round picks for Jamal Adams in a move that sparked a lot of discourse around the value of a safety, even one that had two All-Pros to his name. ESPN praised the Jets for getting rid of the headache.

En route to a third All-Pro nod, Jamal Adams took his victory lap, trying to shed the Blitz Boy label.

Thanks to a rash of injuries and the inexorable passage of time, Jamal Adams’ career veered into the abyss. A torn labrum in 2021, a torn quad in 2022, and a hip injury in 2024 ultimately ended all of those seasons for Adams. In 2025, he played a mere 448 snaps for the Las Vegas Raiders, his fourth team in three years. 

Now, at 30 years old, he’ll play for the Vikings on a functional veteran minimum. Adams’ value has plummeted, and expectations will be tempered. But his union with Brian Flores has head-turning scheme implications.

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Flores blitzes more than anyone else in the league. Per Trumedia, his 45% blitz rate over his three years with Minnesota leads the league by a wide margin. The difference between the Vikings and second-place Giants, led by Wink Martindale for most of that time, is greater than the difference between the Giants and the 12th-place Browns.

So the Blitz Man on the Minnesota Vikings signed the Blitz Boy. Surely, this is a match made in heaven, right? Or is there more to Adams’ game than just highlight reel blitzes? Is Jamal Adams even really a Blitz Boy?

In the last five years, Jamal Adams hasn’t pressured the quarterback much at all. With only 22 pressures since his last All-Pro nod (in 2020!), his reputation as a blitzer may need an update. For context, six linebackers, including Eric Wilson, crossed that mark last season alone. 

Of course, injury-related absence has a lot to do with this. In 2022, he played just 15 snaps before that torn quad ended his season, and in 2024 he only played 40 snaps between Tennessee and late-season relief duty for Detroit.

Even accounting for volume, his pass rushing role has still diminished. From 2019-2020, Jamal Adams rushed the passer 188 times (11.2% of his pass defense snaps), which is the most over that span for any safety by a wide margin. Over the next five combined seasons, Adams rushed just 110 times (6.1% of his snaps). 

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None of Adams’ former teams blitzed like the Vikings do. It stands to reason that Adams will blitz more often than he did before just by virtue of linking up with Brian Flores. Perhaps this is the whole thesis: maybe Adams’ decline is partially due to that change in role. After all, how many of a safety or linebacker’s pressures are schemed up and unblocked?

The question should be pared down, then. We don’t need to know what Pete Carroll’s larger pass rush plan was in Las Vegas, but rather what Jamal Adams will do for Brian Flores.

So let’s ask more directly: Is Adams still a good pass rusher?

His 9.4% pass rush win rate in 2025 was his lowest since his rookie season in 2017. But that’s a lower sample, and blitz win rates are volatile anyway. We don’t expect Adams to beat a guard as much as we’d expect him to beat a tight end or running back. 

Has Adams genuinely declined after all those injuries, or could that be a product of scheme as well? We’ve probably reached the end of the utility of pass rush win data. Let’s actually turn on the tape. 

Like many safeties and linebackers on a blitz, Adams prefers an evasive style. Here, he attacks Isaiah Pacheco with a Eurostep that would make Myles Garrett blush and gets to Patrick Mahomes nearly untouched.

^{Not-so-fun fact: this is Adams’ only sack since 2020!}

This will define a lot of his run defense as well — more on that later — but this is how Adams prefers to go about things. Here’s one from this brief stint in Detroit where he ends up rushing alone against a tackle.

Adams has the big job of keeping contain on Jordan Love here, so it’s pretty aggressive of him to try and win inside. Because Jonah Williams is crossing the guard’s face, he has space to do it, but if he misses, Jordan Love could escape. 

So he charges at Rasheed Walker’s outside shoulder, then crosses inside when Walker sets fast enough upfield to deny Adams the edge. As he crosses, he uses his hands to keep separation between the 324-pound Walker and himself.

Once it’s clear that Walker can move with the inside rep as well, Adams moves back to the outside to regain control of his contain lane. Za’Darius Smith, who is winning his rep on the other side, ultimately gets the sack.

The point of this rep is that Adams will adjust his plan mid-play based on his role and the circumstances, and he’ll do everything he can to stay clear of blockers and free to move around. 

When it’s time for Adams to win the physical phone booth game, we see some of his worst moments. Here, he’s attacking the B gap against Jared Wilson. Once Wilson gets his hands on Adams, he widens the rush path out so much that Adams can’t get there in time, despite finding a route to the backfield.

Further, because of how far upfield Adams ends up, Drake Maye can work toward Wilson to find a clean piece of grass on which to throw.

Here’s one against Rashee Rice that takes place on the back side of quick game, so it’s not too consequential, but you can see how little Adams squeezes the back side as he’s more focused on evading Rice than blowing him up.

Ideally, you’d like your back side rusher to cut off a little more space in case that play turns into a sprint-out or draw play. It looks like Adams is blitzing, which is why he goes upfield, but Rice doesn’t give up much ground that way, either.

This isn’t out of character for a defensive back in the pass rush, but it’s a little more difficult when you consider Adams an off-ball linebacker, which is where he’s played the majority of his snaps for the last three years. It’s even more difficult if you’re trying to justify his Blitz Boy label.

Compare to Ivan Pace, who Adams may compete with for linebacker snaps. Ask yourself if Pace is trying to go around Jahmyr Gibbs, or through him.

For Adams, it’s a stylistic difference that has its advantages and drawbacks. Adams is faster than Pace, so he can afford a wider berth. But imprecision in certain pass rush scenarios can be killer. 

Take this stunt (old Belichick schemes would call it a “You” stunt). Maxx Crosby is crashing, hoping to lure the tackle inside, where Jamal Adams would loop around.

Adams is supposed to jab step at the guard to prevent him from helping with Crosby, then loop around once the tackle’s hand is forced. But the two rushers collide, and the stunt fails.

Adams can’t get into Crosby’s path on this kind of exchange stunt. Then, when he loops around, he takes a very wide path, slowing down the pressure. Trevor Lawrence gets the pass away cleanly.

In Belichick-style schemes, every player must be able to rush from every position. So if this habit bothers Flores, it could hinder Adams’ usage.

But that wouldn’t make Adams a useless player entirely. If you ensure he has space to operate, he can still be an effective rusher. We just shouldn’t think of blitzing as Adams’ primary role.