Jamal Adams is not happy with the Jets.
The former sixth overall pick formally requested a trade from the team on Thursday, according to multiple reports, after months of speculation over his future with the team.
Adams wants to be the highest-paid player at his position, but the Jets – who control Adams’ contract through at least the 2021 season – haven’t budged on meeting his demands. Though GM Joe Douglas said he wanted to make Adams a “Jet for life,” Adams wrote in an Instagram post last week the Jets hadn’t even given him a proposal for a new deal.
“I was called ‘selfish,” Adams wrote. “A lot of talk no action.”
The trade request came Thursday morning, according to ESPN’s Rich Cimini, potentially before Adams blasted the Jets for the second time in a week. He again wrote an Instagram comment, saying “maybe it’s time to move on!” and that he would “protect myself just like an organization will look out for themselves at the end of the day.”
Trade speculation around Adams actually started back in October when reports surfaced that Douglas fielded trade offers from multiple teams, including his hometown Dallas Cowboys. This angered Adams so much he publically wondered if he wanted to stay with the organization that drafted him sixth overall in 2017. The feud boiled over into the offseason, even as Douglas and the Jets praised Adams.
Adams has made it clear that he wants to get paid or traded, but the Jets are in no rush to make a decision on his future because they control his contract for at least one more season and as many as four more seasons.
Compounding this issue is the potential decrease in the 2021 salary cap because of the coronavirus pandemic. Is that fair to Adams? No, of course not. He even brought it up in his most recent Instagram comment. “Don’t use the pandemic excuse,” he wrote. But it’s a valid excuse. There’s no way Douglas will jeopardize the long-term flexibility of the team by committing himself to a $15 million-per-year safety without knowing how much money he’ll have to work with next year. The safety position just isn’t valued enough to risk a lucrative contract right now, even with a player of Adams’ caliber. The safest option for the Jets is to hold Adams’ small contract for the next two years until there’s some clarity on the salary cap.
Adams appears to be done waiting for the Jets, though. He likely wants to be traded to a team that will pay him what he believes he’s worth or a team that can win. Ideally, both.
What could the Jets get for Adams? A lot. Douglas wanted at least a first- and third-round pick for Adams at the October trade deadline. But now that Adams might be officially on the market with his fifth-year option locked in, the price for his services could go up.