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Jamal Adams won’t play another snap this season.
The Minnesota Vikings safety went down during Saturday’s preseason opener, and it turns out the injury is worse than anyone hoped. Head coach Kevin O’Connell confirmed on Monday that Adams tore his right quadricep and will need surgery soon. That means Adams is looking at a return sometime in 2027 — not this year, not next year.
Here’s the strange part: it’s the same injury Adams suffered back in 2022 with the Seattle Seahawks. Different leg this time (right instead of left), same outcome.
Adams barely got going before it happened. He’d played just 11 snaps in Minnesota’s 13-10 win over the New York Giants when he went down attempting to defend a pass in the second quarter. No contact involved — he just fell to the turf. Jaxson Dart had thrown a 15-yard touchdown to Malachi Fields on the play, and Adams was carted off the field shortly after.
“You feel his passion every single day. Certainly felt it, spent a few moments with him before they took him in,” O’Connell said just after halftime of the preseason contest. “You’re just crushed for him. The role that he was kind of paving for himself, and then just having a personality, experience, toughness that he brought in such a short amount of time. We’re going to miss him.”
Minnesota brought Adams in right before training camp started last month. He’d spent last season with the Las Vegas Raiders, appearing in 17 games and racking up 45 total tackles along with a sack.
The Jets took Adams No. 6 overall out of LSU back in 2017. He spent three years in New York before getting traded to Seattle ahead of the 2020 season.
Injuries have followed him for a while now, though.
Despite three Pro Bowl selections earlier in his career, Adams played in fewer than nine games in three straight seasons before landing in Las Vegas. Now he’s dealing with another setback, and at this stage of his career, it’s fair to wonder how much more his body can take.
As for the Vikings, they’re still trying to get back on track after finishing 9-8 last season and missing the playoffs — O’Connell’s fourth year at the helm, and still no postseason trip to show for it. They’ll kick off the regular season on Sept. 13 against the Green Bay Packers, minus one of the defensive pieces they’d hoped would make a difference.
