'Hometown Discount'? Would A Jamal Adams Cowboys Trade Erase 'Highest-Paid' Goal?
FRISCO - "Hometown discounts'' are discussed infinitely more than they are accepted. A player the caliber of Jamal Adams, the disgruntled New York Jets safety, has every right to pursue a desire to be "the highest-paid player at his position.''
But what if that's Adams' view of financial life as a Jet ... but not necessarily Adams' view of financial life as a Cowboy?
Contract talks between the Jets and their 24-year-old star safety have stalled; sources believe there is a sentiment in the New York that as Adams has two contractual years left (at $3.5 million in 2020 and $9.9 million in 2021), the Jets need not hurry here.
The Pro Bowl safety disagrees. He wants a new deal now. And conventional wisdom has it that he also wants almost $15 million per year, allowing him to leapfrog over the Bears' Eddie Jackson with his new extension that pays him an average of $14.6 million per season.
But there are those who are close to this situation, from a variety of angles, who whisper that Adams, a DFW native who continues to spend time here in the offseason and talks openly about his Cowboys love, might allow a financial compromise should the Jets grant him what at least part of him surely wants:
A trade to the Dallas Cowboys.
As it stands, Adams-to-Dallas now (with his $3.5 million salary) would cause no salary-cap issues here; a willingness to "trust'' the Cowboys to eventually take care of him would be a Dallas bonanza - a "trust'' that Adams no longer feels for the Jets. But ... Assuming he wants a new contract in conjunction with the trade, there are still cogs that can churn to make room for such a thing, even as a highly-expensive player. (A Dak Prescott signing would help.)
Or, there can be a financial compromise that gives the Cowboys arguably the best safety in football and gives Adams ... almost all the things he seeks.
Dallas sources tell is this is not presently a front-burner issue; as we reported on Friday, the Jets have talked to Adams about a trade, but have not talked to Dallas about it. Still ... The Jets and Cowboys have engaged in this dance before, with Dallas last October offering a first-round pick and a player. The Michael Irvin-generated news of New York now establishing an asking price of a first- and third-rounder is accurate. (And a) the Jets are displeased that that fact has leaked and b) maybe Dallas has no intention of ever meeting that price.)
Again, as of this moment, a Cowboys source indicates that a new round of serious trade talks have yet to launch. And the Jets keep indicating that Adams, the sixth-overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft and now a two-time Pro Bowler, is a foundational player for them.
But if they don't want to pay him? The Jets haven't made the call to dangle him. The Cowboys haven't made the call to bid.
Maybe it's Jamal Adams himself - whose Hebron High School field is exactly 7.7 miles from The Star - who might offer one of those much-ballyhooed "hometown discounts'' ... and who might have to initiate the call.
