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Seahawks Beat Out 49ers to Trade for Jamal Adams

Big missed opportunity for the 49ers.

Grant Cohn

Big missed opportunity for the 49ers.

Both the Niners and the Seahawks were interested in trading for All Pro safety Jamal Adams. But the Seahawks made a deal happen, and the 49ers did not.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Jets traded Adams to the Seahawks in exchange for a first-round pick in 2021, a third-round pick in 2021, a first-round pick in 2022 and strong safety Bradley McDougald.

My first impression was the Seahawks gave up way too much. I felt Adams was worth a first-round pick and a second-round pick, tops -- the Dolphins got even less when they traded All Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick to the Steelers last season. So you could argue the Seahawks overpaid and the 49ers were smart not to.

But how much are those picks really worth? There may not be college football this fall. There may not be college football, period. Teams might have to base their picks on tape from 2018 and 2019. Meaning the next couple drafts could have lots and lots of busts.

Plus, the 49ers Super Bowl window is open right now. And it’s possible the salary cap will drop from $198 million to $175 million in 2021, when the 49ers will have a couple dozen unrestricted free agents. Meaning the window could shut after the upcoming season. The 49ers might have to reload in 2021.

Adams would have made the 49ers Super Bowl favorites now. Instead, he makes the Seahawks serious contenders in the NFC, and probably the favorites to win the NFC West as well. Remember, they played as well against the 49ers last season as any NFC team, and now they’ve improved. They have assembled the Legion of Boom 2.0. They just need to add a couple pass rushers, and they still might sign Jadeveon Clowney. They’re certainly not done making moves.

If I were the 49ers general manager, I would have traded for Adams and blocked my main division rival from getting him. I would have went all in to win now. Because who knows what the next few years will be like? How can you possibly plan ahead during a global pandemic?

Big missed opportunity for the 49ers.

Time will tell if they made the right choice.

Published
Grant Cohn
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.

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