Acquisition of the year: Jamal Adams, Carlos Dunlap, Brandon Shell or DJ Reed

The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Washington Football Team on Sunday and secured a spot in the next playoffs. They play against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 16, which has just lost the New York Jets, a fact that we will uncover unceasingly this week for years to come.

So it’s the perfect time to relieve stress and talk about General Manager John Schneider’s top three moves this year.

Purchases only. No draft choices. Since we’re here, let’s try to make it more interesting than just “who’s the best”. If we just do this:

• Jamal Adams
• Carlos Dunlap
• Brandon Shell
• DJ Reed

I asked just before preparing this, and that was the strong consensus. None of these guys play in the same position, so it looks incredibly subjective. However, Adams is in another Pro Bowl. Dunlap will hold some Cincinnati Bengals franchise records for some time. Shell is the immediate starter and the second or third best player in the offensive line, while Reed struggles to maintain his starting position, surprisingly. I think the order is fair.

Consider four categories: talent, cost, need and future perspective.

The Frontrunner

Jamal Adams.

Best statistic: 9.5 sacks as he improves his own NFL record for a defensive defense.

Cost: the arm, too: the leg.
(Two choices from the first round and Bradley McDougald).

The challenger

Carlos Dunlap.

Best statistic: Two winning serves in just six games. Five in total for Seattle. Hulk Smash + Superman dive = you get a tweet.

The cost: BJ Finney and a choice of the seventh round.

The black horse

DJ Reed.

Best statistic: 1/1/3/6. This is an INT, a recovered fumble, three defended passes (!) And six tackles in total. Also known as his game against the Washington Football Team. For having one of the best games that a defender can have, you also get a tweet.

The cost: An email, I assume, plus the $ 582,000 contract he was on. Reed was hired after the 49ers to stay home and watch the San Francisco postseason dismissed him because he couldn’t play for a few weeks.

The big one

Brandon Shell. Shell deserves to be on this list and is a fierce competitor for the most important add, but is currently not playing (which only helped in his case). His absent games coincided almost perfectly with Reed’s games, which have nothing to do with anything I just wanted to bring up.

Best statistic: Permitted pressure rate of 2.9%. Their 20 pressures in 693 snaps are actually a speck ahead of the 3.0% pressure allowed by Duane Brown, making the two tackles the best pass defenders on the team.

The cost: two years at $ 9 million, as a free subscription agent.

If we are working outside the talent ladder mentioned above, it matches the surprise factor for each player. Adams is minimal; Reed is quite a lot.

For example, all of us (who have heard of teams other than the Seahawks) knew that Jamal Adams was very good. Our surprise was maybe we didn’t know that he was it is Good. At least in the front. Some are still under the impression he wasn’t worth it because of your coverage. On the other hand, the surprise with Reed was that he was nice to give back kicks, so he didn’t ruin a game, so he made some good plays, to “screw Quinton Dunbar and / or Tre Flowers we hang out with DJ”.

The necessity. For that, I’m imagining something like baseball’s Wins Above Replacement, but not the PFF version, because that’s not it.

Jamal Adams: third. The Seahawks had two safety devices of initial caliber, although none of them were as talented or unique as Adams. They would have a secondary, but the teams would not be forced to plan as they currently do.

Carlos Dunlap: first. Each defensive lineman was performing so poorly that Schneider’s hand was forced if he wanted a serious look at the playoffs. Now that Dunlap is here, it is clear that this line is full of good seconds and third rushers and needed a real number one.

Brandon Shell: second. There was no other right tackle and there is no other. This bothers me because I don’t think Russell Wilson needs the right tackle to be as good as Shell, but sometimes he does. Shell’s replacement was … well last Sunday, but Wilson still played as if a bag was on him at random times.

DJ Reed: bedroom. Seattle has three supposedly better corners than Reed, but now two are injured and he made us question. This was not supposed to be a weakness after the Dunbar trade, but here we are singing your praises, however. At the end of the day, play with the best guy, and at this point it’s probably Reed.

For a treat, here’s how I rated all these guys, just so I can dive in later.

Talent

Adams – 1
Dunlap – 2
Shell – 3
Reed – 4

Cost

Reed – 1
Shell – 2
Dunlap – 3
Adams – 4

Need

Dunlap – 1
Shell – 2
Adams – 3
Reed – 4

Future perspective

Here’s the deal. Who knows any of those things. Each of these guys will finish this season and should be on the list next year pending something strange.

Adams – He’s a perennial professional with a rookie contract. This year it is one of the best NFL deals. Next year, he will be in the fifth year option – still great. After that, it will be a little difficult, but I believe the Seahawks want special defensive players to stay and he clearly likes it here.

Dunlap – The fact that he restructured his contract was incredible for the short-term friendliness. This allowed him to get here quickly, and makes it much more likely that he will stay in the next season, a near guarantee at this point. However, after that, he will be 33 years old and it seems unlikely that the team is offering a lot of money.

Reed – He’s here now, he’s definitely here next year, and at this point the biggest risk would be to throw himself out of their price range. Keeping Dunbar or Shaquill Griffin is not a guarantee at this point, and Reed may not have enough playing time to leave Seattle.

Shell – he will be 30 when he goes for a new contract, and the Seahawks are kind of bad at recruiting line players who aren’t called Damien Lewis lately. If he plays like this year and doesn’t waste a lot of time, they should stay with him.

See how those top numbers came out. A low score is better, since being the first of four is better or something.

Dunlap – 6

Shell – 7

Adams – 8

Reed – 9

So close! Add any probability that you think the player will continue to contribute in the future, and that’s it, you have the best John Schneider acquisition in 2020.

Merry Christmas to all.