The Jets don’t have many options to replace their best pass rusher and safety if Jamal Adams misses time with an ankle injury.
Jamal Adams didn’t look healthy throughout most of the Jets’ loss to the Bengals Sunday, and his potential absence in Week 14 throws an already depleted defense into complete disarray.
Adam Gase wouldn’t rule Adams out for the Dolphins game this week but called the safety’s ankle injury “legit week-to-week.” Adams was seen in a walking boot following the Bengals loss, but Gase wouldn’t call it anything more than an ankle injury.
“I’m going to lean on him a lot as far as how he feels,” Gase said Monday. “We want to make sure he’s good to go before we put him back out there. I want to make sure he’s in the right place physically so he can play his style of ball, which is basically he’s the heartbeat of our defense. We want him to be able to go full throttle and he has to feel right to get back out there.”
Gase’s assessment of Adams’ role is 100 percent correct – he is the heart and soul of the Jets defense. Without him, the Jets could be in a lot of trouble, both from a personnel and schematic perspective.
If Adams misses any time, the Jets won’t have many options to replace him in the starting lineup.
New York only has two other safeties on the active roster, Blake Countess and Matthias Farley. They have a combined three defensive snaps in 2019, all of which belong to Farley. If Gase doesn’t want to start either of those two, he could opt to move cornerback Darryl Roberts over to safety, a role he’s at least somewhat familiar with after starting five weeks in 2018 for Marcus Maye. A third choice is to look at free agency, where former Jets reserve safeties like Brandon Bryant and Santos Ramirez are available. The fourth and least likely option is to bring in a veteran safety like T.J. McDonald, Eric Berry or George Iloka if Adams hits injured reserve.
Regardless of which route the Jets take if Adams isn’t healthy enough to play, the defense will suffer without him. Gregg Williams will lose his most valuable pass rusher and one of his best coverage defenders and it will change how he builds his defensive schemes. Williams unlocked Adams’ potential to rush the quarterback at multiple spots on the field, and it’s translated to team-highs in blitzes (60), pressures (15) and sacks (6.5). The Jets will have even more trouble rushing the quarterback without Adams, who has 32 more blitzes than any other active Jets defender.
Unsurprisingly, Adams wants to play. He said after the Bengals game that he felt like he let his team down by being unable to perform because of “a freak accident.” He injured his ankle early in the contest and only missed one snap, but didn’t look the same for most of the game. On Monday, he tweeted about how badly he wants to play through the injury.
“This injury is eating me alive,” Adams tweeted. “S–– sucks, can’t even describe how it feels to have something stop you right when you get on a roll. I’m gonna do everything I can to get back on the field ASAP, believe that. Win, lose, or draw, I wanna be out there with my brothas.”
The Jets will take the necessary precautions before deciding on Adams’ availability, including an MRI this week, and it looks like he won’t practice for most if not all of this week. With the playoffs almost completely out of the picture, it would make sense to sit Adams until he’s fully healthy. It would decimate the Jets defense, but the longterm health of Adams is significantly more important than a meaningless Week 14 game against the equally-woeful Dolphins.
If the Jets are seriously considering giving Adams a long-term extension this offseason, which they should, keeping him off the field for at least a week would be best for the team. It would also allow the Jets to get extended looks at other players at the position. The loss of Adams would completely change how Gregg Williams gameplans his defense against the Dolphins, but it’s the right move for the future of the Jets.
