Did the New York Jets get good value in trading Jamal Adams? Bucky Brooks doesn't think so
Bucky Brooks weighed in on the New York Jets recent megadeal sending Jamal Adams to the Seattle Seahawks. Spoiler alert: Brooks wasn’t necessarily in love with the deal.
This past weekend, the Jets shipped their All-Pro safety and a fourth round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft to Seattle for starting safety Bradley McDougald, a 2021 first round pick, a 2021 third round pick and a 2022 first round pick. The net haul from general manager Joe Douglas is impressive albeit tempered by the fact that the Seahawks are a likely playoff team in the foreseeable future and will be picking late in the first round.
“I want players over picks. I want to know that what I’m getting is going to be an All-Pro player,,” Brooks said on Wednesday in an interview with Colin Cowherd on FS1 and FoxSports Radio.
“For so long, we’ve hear people talk about drafting and developing is how you build your team. When you draft a player sixth overall and he plays at an All-Pro level and a Pro Bowl level in two of those three seasons – he and J.J. Watt are the only guys that have 200 plus tackles, 10 plus sacks, 25 pass breakups – you’re talking about a gold jacket type of player. SO I’m not ready to give up those kind of guys for nothing. And when we think about the difficulty of drafting those type of players, I like sticking with guys I know. I believe Joe Douglas is going to be a good evaluator, he’s going to select good players but just know this about the New York Jets: five out of their last six number one picks have been traded away or cut. That does not bode well for them selecting a player who is going to play up to Jamal Adams’ talent level but their ability to retain those type of players.”
Brooks, now a media personality, is a former NFL player and Super Bowl champion who worked as a scout following his playing days. He appeared on Colin Cowherd’s show ‘The Herd’ on Wednesday.
The trade by Douglas has to also be measured against circumstances and not just the return on investment. Adams, the team’s biggest star, had also taken public shots at the Jets over the better part of the past month and had openly lobbied for a trade. He was no longer tenable in terms of keeping on the roster.
The Jets being able to get a starting safety in the very solid McDougald as well as two first round picks and a third round pick over the next two seasons, however, is still a solid net return. Lost a bit on Brooks’ analysis is that they also free up some significant cap space as well by not having to invest at least $15 million annually at the safety position over the next five years. For a rebuilding team, that type of salary cap space can significantly alter how the Jets pursue free agency over the next season or two.
