Adam Gase on Jamal Adams trade: He didn't want to be here anymore so the decision was made to move'
The trade of Jamal Adams wasn’t personal according to New York Jets head coach Adam Gase, just business. In a conference call with the media on Tuesday, Gase defended the decision to trade his star safety as being necessary to not only continue the rebuild of the roster and also balance the locker room.
Adams was traded this past Saturday to the Seattle Seahawks, just a day after he trashed the organization including Gase and general manager Joe Douglas. A month ago, the All-Pro safety publicly demanded a trade over his discontent stemming from a lack of a contract extension.
“Every situation is different with every player. For us, we looked at it as we want guys who want to be here and obviously he didn’t want to be here anymore so the decision was made to move on,” Gase said in defending the trade on Tuesday’s call.
“It’s a team game, we have a bunch of guys who are excited to get going, those are the guys I’m going to focus on. I’m extremely fired up to get this roster that Joe D. and our personnel guys did a great job of assembling this offseason. From the conversations I’ve had with a lot of guys, they’re extremely excited to get this thing rolling.”
The Jets only Pro Bowl selection last year, Adams is entering the fourth year of his five-year rookie contract. He openly stated that he wanted a long-term deal that would make him the highest-paid safety in the NFL.
In 2019, Adams emerged as a star and one of the best defensive players in the NFL, registering 75 tackles and 6.5 sacks. But he also showed a wild side on social media, including using it as a weapon to lobby for a new contract and then eventually to seek out a trade.
Last week as part of his laundry list of complaints lobbed against the Jets, Adams said that Gase was not well-liked within the locker room and that he wouldn’t address the team at halftime if the Jets were losing.
“As far as the alleged addressing at halftime, there were only two times in the second half of the season that we were down. One was the Cincinnati game and I addressed the team at halftime. One was the Baltimore game and I addressed the team at halftime,” Gase said. “One game he was in the training room in Cincinnati and the other one he wasn’t playing. It is hard for me to address a question like that when I know the correct answer.”
JETS NOTES
--> In discussing the trade of Adams to Seattle, Gase called it a “win-win for both sides.” The Jets sent Adams and a fourth round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft to the Seahawks for a first round pick in 2021, a third round pick in 2021, a first round pick in 2022 and safety Bradley McDougald (who had 15 starts last year).
“That’s what makes football the greatest sport there is, it is a team sport,” Gase said.
“I feel like us being able to get Bradley in exchange plus the draft picks, I think that puts us in a good position in how we’re going to run our defense this year. I do think we’re going to need all three phases to play as a team and do what we need to do to be playing in January.”
--> Despite the fact that Adams took some shots at Gase on Friday, the Jets head coach was rather diplomatic when talking about his former star player.
“We wish him nothing but the best, that’s a done deal and I’m going to focus on the players that are currently on the roster,” Gase said at the start of his conference call.
