Don’t forget the injury guarantees in Jamal Adams’ contract

The amount of cap space Seattle can save releasing Jamal Adams has been widely reported and repeated in recent weeks and months, but those numbers have failed to take into account the injury guarantees he’s afforded under the CBA.

It’s the offseason and free agency starts in less than a week, meaning NFL teams like the Seattle Seahawks have a ton of questions to answer in the coming days regarding how to manage their salary cap situation for 2024. There’s been no shortage of fans opining on the situation, and how they would like the Hawks to proceed in trimming payroll before entering free agency with money to spend.

However, of the names fans like to mention as release candidates for the purpose of freeing up cap space for the 2024 season, one name seems to appear more often than others. That name is, of course, none other than that of All Pro strong safety Jamal Adams, whose once-promising career has been derailed by a series of significant injuries during his time with the Seahawks. From having his shoulder surgically rebuilt twice within a calendar year to tearing the quadriceps tendon in the season opening win over Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos in 2022, Adams has missed 32 games during his four seasons in Seattle.

So, fans are ready to move on, there has been no shortage of declaration regarding how much cap space the Hawks could save by moving on from Adams, and fans are ready to make the move. If left to the fanbase, it seems the only question would be whether to release Adams outright and eat all the dead money associated with his contract in 2024, or whether to use a post-June 1 designation and split the dead money up between the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

In short, assuming the Seahawks opt to move on from Adams, the reported amounts of cap space that can be saved are:

• Released outright in 2024: $6,083,666 in 2024 ($20,833,334 dead cap hit in 2024)
• Released with post-June 1 designation: $16,500,000 in 2024 ($10,416,668 dead cap charge in each of 2024 and 2025)

So, while everyone is quick to parrot those numbers and toss their two cents in the ring, there is one more factor that must be considered, and that is the injury guarantees of Adams’ contract. That sound you hear is dozens of registered users rushing to the comments section to inform the world that Adams has no more guaranteed money and no injury guarantees remaining in his contract.

However, while Adams has no more individually negotiated injury guarantees, the idea that Adams has no more injury guarantees fails to take into account Article 45 of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Under the 2020 CBA every player on a multi-year contract that extends past the current season has injury guarantees, and that includes Adams.

Thus, it’s time for the fun of parsing the legalese of Article 45, Section 2 of the CBA:

Section 2. Qualification: A player will receive the Injury Protection Benefit in accordance with Section 3 if the player’s contract was terminated by his Club and he satisfies all of the criteria below:

(a) The player must have been physically unable, because of a severe football injury in an NFL game or practice, to participate in all or part of his Club’s last game of the season of injury, as certified by the Club physician following a physical examination after the last game; or the player must have undergone Club-authorized surgery in the offseason following the season of injury; and

(b) The player must have undergone whatever reasonable and customary rehabilitation treatment the Club required of him during the off-season following the season of injury. The Club shall be responsible for the costs of such reasonable and customary rehabilitation treatment, regardless of whether the player remains employed by the Club during that off-season; and

(c) A player under contract must have failed a physical examination given by his Club for the purpose of determining his eligibility for the Injury Protection Benefit on or before August 1 of the season following the season of injury. A player whose contract has been terminated prior to being given the physical examination contemplated by this Subsection may only be given one such physical exam on or before August 1 of the applicable season.

Since the Seahawks placed Adams on injured reserve prior to the end of the 2023 season, (a) is automatically met, while (b) is likely to be met, which means whether or not Adams would qualify for the injury protection benefit would depend on the outcome of a physical.

Assuming he would qualify for payment under the Article 45 Injury Protection, it then becomes necessary to determine how much he could potentially receive. Returning to the CBA for the answer to that question, Article 45, Section 3(a) reads: (Author’s note: Bolding added to relevant portions.)

Section 3. Benefit:

(a) Except as otherwise required by operation of Section 1 above, a player qualifying under Section 2 above will receive an amount equal to 100% of his Paragraph 5 Salary for the season following the season of injury. Notwithstanding the immediately preceding sentence, under no circumstances shall the above-described amount (i.e., 100% of the player’s Paragraph 5 Salary) exceed the following maximum payments: $2,000,000, in the 2021-22 League Year; $2,050,000, in the 2023-24 League Years; $2,100,000, in the 2025-26 League Years; $2,180,000, in the 2027-28 League Years; and $2,260,000, in the 2029-2030 League Years.

The Paragraph 5 Salary for Adams in 2024 is $16.5M, so 100% of that amount subject to a maximum of $2.05M is, of course, $2.05M, which is how much he would be in line to receive should the Hawks release him with a failed physical designation. Now, not all of that would count against the cap, with just $1.23M of the amount going against the cap, should Adams not sign with another team in for 2024.

That’s not all, though. Article 45, Section 7 lays out the qualifications for Extended Injury Protection, which provides all players, including Adams, $1.025M of injury guarantees in the second season after injury. That, of course, means that should Adams fail to sign with a new team, he could earn another $1.025M, of which $590k would count against the cap, in 2025.

Putting everything together, it certainly seems likely that the Seahawks choose to move on from Adams sometime in the coming weeks, but as fans have seen in multiple cases in seasons past, the injury status could play a small role in the amount of cap space that could be created. The amount in question is likely not material enough to sway a decision one way or the other, but it is something to keep in mind to prevent potential speedbumps down the road.