Price Tag Proves Bucs Were Never Going to Land Jamal Adams

Seattle paid a king's ransom for the Pro Bowl safety, and now they'll have to sign him to a big extension, two things the Bucs were never going to do.

Jamal Adams has been trying his best to get the New York Jets to trade him, and the No. 6 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft finally got what he wanted Saturday, when the Seattle Seahawks gave up multiple first-round picks in a blockbuster deal to land him.

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Bradley McDougald was also part of the deal, going to the Jets along with a first-round pick in each of the next two drafts, as well as a third-rounder in the 2021 draft. The Seahawks got Adams and a fourth-round pick in 2022 draft in return:

Trade:
Jets deal Jamal Adams and 4th-round pick in 2022

To

Seattle, in exchange for Bradley McDougald (safety), 1st-round pick in 2021, 3rd-round pick in 2021, and 1st-round pick in 2022, source tells ESPN.

Deal is pending physicals.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 25, 2020

As soon as Adams made it clear he wanted out of New York, many connected the dots to the Bucs, where his skill set would have been a fantastic fit in Todd Bowles' defense. Bowles was also the Jets' head coach when Adams was drafted, and the two certainly worked well together before Bowles was let go by the Jets and ended up in Tampa Bay.

But while Adams would have been fun to watch in Pewter & Red, the haul the Seahawks gave up for him is proof the Bucs were never going to be serious contenders for his services. After all the recent draft picks the team has invested in the safety position, most recently spending a top-50 pick on Minnesota's Antoine Winfield Jr., there was no chance they were giving up their next two first-rounders to add Adams to an already deep position group.

Furthermore, the Seahawks will now have to give Adams a lucrative long-term extension if they want to make him worth the picks they gave up by keeping him around for the foreseeable future. That's something the Bucs couldn't afford to do, even if they wanted do, especially with the salary cap likely to be reduced over the next few seasons to make up for the revenue losses from this season due to COVID-19. Tampa Bay was already tight on cap space after their offseason moves this year, and with extensions for key players like Chris Godwin and Lavonte David on the docket soon, adding Adams to that list wouldn't have been possible without some deep cuts.

So, while it was fun to imagine Adams flying around in Bowles' aggressive, complex defensive scheme, it never made sense to think he would actually land with the Bucs.