In a new story from the New York Daily News’ Manish Mehta, Jamal Adams spoke publicly and candidly about his relationship with the Jets, Adam Gase and Joe Douglas, as well as his future with the team.
The picture he painted is not pretty.
Not only did Adams tell Mehta that Douglas said he’s willing to trade the All-Pro safety before the 2020 season, but Adams also described a less-than-friendly relationship with both the general manager and Gase.
“I don’t feel like he’s the right leader for this organization to reach the Promised Land,” Adams told Mehta in regards to Gase. “As a leader, what really bothers me is that he doesn’t have a relationship with everybody in the building.”
This sounds eerily similar to the reports out of Miami when Gase coached the Dolphins from 2016-2018. Gase had a reputation for alienating players in the locker room and was criticized for his play-calling. Multiple Dolphins players expressed happiness when Gase was fired in 2018.
“At the end of the day, [Gase] doesn’t address the team,” Adams continued. “If there’s a problem in the locker room, he lets another coach address the team. If we’re playing [expletive] and we’re losing, he doesn’t address the entire team as a group at halftime. He’ll walk out of the locker room and let another coach handle it.”
Gase, earlier this offseason, said he had a good relationship with Adams.
Adams’ frustrations with the team aren’t reserved for Gase. He also hasn’t been happy with the communication from the front office regarding contract negotiations, which Adams said were supposed to start in January. Adams said the Jets never gave him an offer and kept pushing negotiations further into the offseason without any actual contract proposal. Adams contends that Douglas never explained to him why his negotiations hadn’t progressed despite Douglas claiming he wanted Adams to be a “Jet for life.”
He still has two years left on his rookie contract, but Adams wants to be the highest-paid safety in the NFL, among other previously reported demands.
“If they would have just simply said, ‘You know what, Jamal — we’re not going to look to pay you this year, we want to keep adding players — I would have respected that more,” Adams said. “I would say, ‘You know what? I respect it. As a man, I get it. I understand it’s a business.’ But for them to tell me that they’re going to pay me and then not send over a proposal after they said that’s what they were going to, that’s where we go wrong. And then for you to ignore me, that’s why I have a problem.”
Adams has repeatedly taken to social media to air his grievances against the Jets. In June he requested a trade to one of eight teams. The Jets originally looked unwilling to trade Adams because they control his rights through at least the 2021 season. Now, though, it appears Douglas has changed his stance, at least according to Adams and the Daily News.
“It’s definitely mixed feelings,” Adams said about the prospect of being traded. “But at the end of the day, my happiness is more important. I know my worth. I’m going to stand on my beliefs. I’m going to stand on who I am as a person. And I’m not ever going to change who I am for somebody who’s judging me. Either you accept me for who I am and you work with me and support me or you don’t. It’s okay if you don’t.”
The Daily News offered a timeline of events that show the growing tension between Adams and the team. Douglas reportedly wanted Adams to prove his loyalty to the Jets by continuing to play on his rookie contract so the team could monitor him. That perturbed Adams, as well as the insinuations that trading Adams would be hard considering his actions this offseason. Adams called the process “draining.”
Adams said he still plans to report to camp this summer despite his contract and trade dispute with the Jets. The relationship, based on Mehta’s report, appears unsalvageable. Adams is clearly angry, frustrated and exhausted from an offseason of back and forth mixed messaging and an uncertain future.
Adams said that he still has “nothing but love and respect” for the Jets fanbase, “but when an organization starts to disrespect you like this, it’s just time to move on.”