BREAKING: Jamal Adams to 49ers “Picking up Steam”

Potential bombshell.

Grant Cohn | Jun 24, 2020

Potential bombshell.

I just got a direct message from a well-placed source saying Jamal Adams to the 49ers is “picking up steam.”

This doesn’t mean Adams is coming to the 49ers, but it certainly has more reality than it did a few days ago. And it would be a big deal.

Adams, 24, was an All Pro strong safety for the New York Jets in 2019, meaning he was the NFL’s best strong safety last season. He intercepted one pass, batted down seven passes, forced two fumbles, recovered one fumble, scored one touchdown and recorded a whopping 6.5 sacks -- rare for a defensive back.

The Jets took Adams with the sixth pick of the 2017 draft -- three picks after the 49ers took defensive lineman Solomon Thomas, a bust. Adams has exceeded expectations, and missed only two games during his three-season career. Recently, Adams demanded a trade, and listed the 49ers as one of seven teams he would like to join.

Adams played college football at LSU. Meaning he conceivably could reach out to 49ers outside linebacker Kwon Alexander, who also went to LSU, and ask Alexander to lobby the 49ers to trade for him.

Alexander might not have to lobby hard. Adams is great, available, young and not particularly expensive. The 49ers would have to pay him $7.1 million in 2020, and $9.8 million in 2021 before extending his contract in 2022 when the salary cap could be $50 million dollars higher than it is now.

Adams instantly would become the best player in a 49ers secondary that could lose three starters in 2021 -- Richard Sherman, Jaquiski Tartt and K’Waun Williams. All will be free agents.

If Adams joins the team, he would be the foundation of the 49ers secondary for the next five to 10 years.

Published Jun 24, 2020

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.