Dyer: At this point, the Jamal Adams and the New York Jets relationship can't be healed
Jamal Adams doesn’t want to be a New York Jets safety any longer and the act is now at a point of no return between the two sides.
On Friday, the Jets' All-Pro safety and undeniable best player told the New York Daily News that he is done with the Jets and wants out of New York. He painted a picture of a locker room where head coach Adam Gase does not communicate effectively or well with all the players, and that Gase wasn't the "right leader" for the team. There was a laundry list of complaints from Adams about his current situation.
And Adams going public on these issues only compounds an offseason where he has made it clear that he doesn’t want to be in New York and has given the Jets plenty of reasons why they should be all too eager to ship him off for a package of draft picks.
No matter how talented Adams is, and he is talented, this can't offset the shots now taken at the organization. Adams isn't above the team or this rebuild.
In making these pointed and distinct comments, Adams has shredded any hopes of healing the rift between himself and the organization.
The division between the Jets and Adams simply cannot be repaired and frankly, shouldn’t be. The way Adams has aired his dirty laundry both via social media and in interviews makes it clear that he is not a building block for what the Jets are trying to do. He wants out of town and that is his right and prerogative. But at the end of the day the Jets simply can’t reward his three years on the field as the game’s best safety while continuing to ignore these antics.
Enough has to be enough if the Jets want to move forward.
All this stems, originally, from several weeks ago when a report about Adams wanting a trade was followed up days later by Adams posting on social media that he does indeed want to be shipped out of New York. A lack of a new contract, which Adams claims was supposed to be offered to him this offseason, is at the crux of his discontent.
Adams wants to be paid as the game’s top safety. He deserves such a contract. The argument can be made that he is one of the best defensive players in the NFL, bar any position. But as he enters the fourth year of his rookie contract, the Jets don’t have to offer him a new deal at this point. They can sit and wait.
Truthfully, it is in the Jets' best interest to play this thing out. Next year’s salary cap may very well go down in light of the coronavirus pandemic and investing high-end money in a safety with a shrinking cap could stall their rebuild. There is also the fact that the safety position in and of itself is not as highly invested in by most NFL teams, meaning that a rebuilding team is taking up valuable capital at a position not as valued as, say quarterback, offensive tackle, defensive end or cornerback.
The message sent by the Jets if they now dole out record-setting money for a new contract is that Adams is entitled to act any way he wants and, because he is the team’s best player, it will be allowed. This would go above and beyond the deferential treatment of star players that is seen throughout sports. It would send a message to the locker room that Adams can be more than a malcontent but be divisive. In this case, it will not only be tolerated but in fact will be rewarded.
If it had worked out, Adams could have been a legend. In three years with the team, he already has made two Pro Bowl appearances. Had he stuck it out in New York, Adams could have been among the best players in Jets history along with Joe Namath and Curtis Martin. There would be a spot in the ‘Ring of Honor’ for him.
Perhaps the divide could have been healed before these latest remarks and a new contract could have been reached that would have made Adams the top-paid safety in the league as well as the face of the franchise for the next five years. He could have been what general manager Joe Douglas had said in late February was his hope for Adams: to be a Jets player for life.
Instead, Adams has now created a divide, a chasm for which there is no bridge. The relationship is officially rotten. Lashing out at the core of this team and its rebuild simply can’t be tolerated by head coach Adam Gase and Douglas.
There can be no going back. The things said can’t be unsaid.
Jamal Adams and his time in New York has to be done.
