Jamal Adams Opens Up on New York Jets trade: 'I Really Tried to Stay'
Nearly two months after being the central piece in a blockbuster trade, All-Pro safety Jamal Adams is opening up a bit on his role in forcing his way off the New York Jets. He admits that he had a hand in getting himself traded from the Jets.
In late July, the Jets traded Adams and a 2022 fourth round pick to the Seattle Seahawks for two first round picks (2021, 2022), a third round pick (2021) and safety Bradley McDougald. The trade of the two-time Pro Bowl safety was a deep wound to the Jets and came after weeks of sniping by Adams at the Jets organization over the lack of a contract. Adams was a first round pick of the Jets in the 2017 NFL and the team’s one true star.
In fact, one day before he was traded, Adams had a one-on-one interview with Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. In the interview, Adams opened up to Mehta with a slew of negative opinions about the Jets, management and head coach Adam Gase.
“I haven’t told too many people this story, but it was really a dream come true because the Friday before I did get traded I was stressed and I knew that it wasn’t right with the Jets and I,” Adams said in the UNINTERRUPTED's '17 Weeks' podcast produced by Sirius XM/Pandora.
“I knew it wasn’t right. As bad as I wanted to stay and as bad as I wanted to create my own legacy and try to build something and try to bring a championship to New York, it was hard, man, and I felt like a lot of the times the weight was on my shoulders. I get it, fans are hurt and it’s not how I wanted to go about it. Yeah, oh, you could say I forced my way out or whatever the case might be. It was a lot of both. I really tried to stay, you know what I mean? Like I just wanted the respect. I wanted you guys to respect me in the sense in, c’mon bro, like I’m trying to build something here.”
Right or wrong, Adams was painted as the villain of this story. He claimed that the source of his discontent was that the Jets promised to engage in contract negotiations over a new deal this offseason and no talks ever occurred.
What happened in the offseason was Adams publicly asking for a trade, being caught on camera saying he wanted to be moved to the Dallas Cowboys and then a series of social media posts that created a greater divide with the Jets organization.
Now with the Seahawks, Adams has said he is fine playing on his rookie contract for this year (he has one season left on the original five-year deal). On Sunday in his Seahawks debut, Adams had 12 tackles, one sack and two quarterback hits in a 38-25 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
“Like I said, I don’t regret anything over there. All I do is work hard, is work on my craft and be the best teammate I can be, man, and lead the group as best as possible,” Adams said. “So it’s pretty cool to come over here and now there’s not only myself as a leader, there’s tons of leaders, bro. I mean the list goes on and on. Honestly, quite frankly, it didn’t really hit me of who I wanted to be and who I am now until I got traded.”
To hear the full podcast and Adams dive into life with the Seahawks, click here.
