The latest signal of the style of aggressive approach the Titans are after came two weeks before camp when the team took a one-year gamble on two-time former All-Pro safety Jamal Adams.
The move reunites Adams and Titans defensive coordinator Dennard Williams, who was Adams’ position coach with the New York Jets when the former first-round pick first rose to stardom.
Adams comes to the Titans at a bit of a discounted rate, given that he has only played in 10 games over the past two years, missing significant time due to a torn quadriceps tendon.
“My surgeon was kind of telling me two years, but as competitive as I am, I was going to try to get back in a year or so. I tried to get out there last year. It was tough. I was having to be on (nonsteroidal pain reliever) Toradol 24/7 just to play. I really couldn’t be myself. I couldn’t cut and be explosive like I wanted to,” Adams says.
While it appears early on that Adams, who once had 9.5 sacks from the safety position for Seattle, will be a situational player rather than a full-time starter, he says the familiarity that the Titans coaching staff has with him from other stops was one reason he landed in Tennessee.
“Obviously, being around Dennard and Jack (Jackson) and Frank Bush and those guys again, it’s almost like home base. Those guys raised me and I’m just grateful to be back,” Adams says.
Adams is looking at 2024 as a chance to reestablish himself as a potential impact player, something he has not really been since 2020 when he made the last of his three Pro Bowls.
“I was at the top of the chart – the highest of the high, the best of the best. And I was at the bottom, and now I’m working myself right back to the top,” he says.