NFL free agency update: Where the Jets stand with Jadeveon Clowney, Yannick Ngakoue

New York Jets General Manager Joe Douglas made his first public comments since free agency began. The team continues to pursue help via free agency, and the draft is now three weeks away. Let’s take a look inside this week’s notebook.

• Jadeveon Clowney is still on the Jets radar. The free-agent inside edge pass rusher has backed off his $20 million contract demands according to ESPN's reporting. He is reportedly now looking in the $16 or $17 million range. Douglas told the media in a conference call that they have been in contact with Clowney’s representatives.

“I think I've been very open and transparent about what we needed to fix,” Douglas said in a conference call with the media this week. “The positions of need that we were going to address, and I feel that we need to really build a foundation moving forward of the right type of people and the right kind of depth on our team.”

• In that conference call with the team's beat reporters on Wednesday, Douglas defended the Jets’ signing of offensive tackle George Fant, who received a three-year deal worth a reported $23.7 million, with $13.7 million guaranteed. Douglas had nothing but good things to say about the former Seattle Seahawk.

“The things he can do, lateral quickness, just the raw, athletic tools that he has,” Douglas said per Randy Lange of the team's website. “He's going to have a great opportunity to come in and compete for a starting spot.”

• Could the rumors of Jamal Adams to the Dallas Cowboys be back in play? That's what one Dallas beat reporter is saying.

Adams still does not have a contract extension and while he hasn’t come out and complained publicly (especially since the coronavirus pandemic is dominating all headlines), Mike Fisher wrote on SI Cowboys site that the Cowboys would offer a high draft pick for Adams if the Jets don’t extend him. Joe Douglas told reporters, “nothing's really changed on our end. Our focus has really been on finishing up on free agency and the draft, so no new news to report in that regard."

Fisher did offer this up on Twitter:

If the #Cowboys sense that Jamal Adams & #Jets can’t agree on a long-term deal, Dallas will circle back with a high-pick offer. https://t.co/mzJC7CtJXB
— fishsports ✭ (@fishsports) April 1, 2020

• Teams that lose out on Clowney have shown interest in disgruntled Jacksonville Jaguars pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue. The Jaguars applied the Franchise Tag, so any team that loses out on Clowney and still feels that a pass rusher is a need worth a first round draft pick will be in touch with the Jaguars.

The Jets do have that need, but not for the No. 11 pick in the draft. As the rumors continue to heat up about the Jets and Clowney, it appears that there are no other big name pass rushers on the table at this point.