ADAMS: DEAL ME!

Wrong way to handle business

JETS GM Joe Douglas has declared more than once that he wants Jamal Adams to be a Jet for life.

You make exceptions for your foundational players, for young stars, for the defiant leader of your defense. For the best player on your team.

I have always felt that if he shows you, through his words and through his actions, he wants to be a Jet for life, which he said in a less emotional time, then pay Jamal Adams.

But Jamal Adams has dropped the ball.

There are far better ways to handle a contract dispute than publicly challenging your team to put its money where his big mouth is before it is prepared to do so.

He has requested a trade to any of these seven teams, according to ESPN: Ravens, Cowboys, Texans, Chiefs, Eagles, 49ers and Seahawks.

He trusts Douglas about as much as Tony Clark and Rob Manfred and their MLB minions have trusted one another.

Now everyone in the NFL knows Douglas has lost the leverage to even attempt to dare ask for a firstand third-round draft pick.

Jamal Adams had a choice:

In the weeks leading up to the opening of training camps, he had an opportunity to declare whether or not he wanted to be a Jet for life.

He could have decided to hold his horses on the big-money extension he has earned by outplaying his contract and trust that Douglas would operate in good faith at a time of his choosing. Or he could threaten or stage a training camp holdout and/or demand a trade.

Adams has always been a young man in a hurry. And it’s somewhat understandable here, given that his father George had his Giants career cut unceremoniously short by a hip injury that compelled him to file an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Giants.

It’s just that at this moment, Adams should have recognized that impatience is not a virtue.

At a time when the pandemic has claimed close to 120,000 lives and 21 million people remained out of work at the end of May.

At a time when it is uncertain how NFL games without fans would compromise the 2020 salary cap and therefore demand greater fiscal responsibility.

Adams is due to make $3.5 million this year, and $9.9 million in 2021. The Jets, with $24.7 million in cap space, have Adams under team control for at least two years and have the 2022 option of the franchise tag.

The Bears pre-pandemic in January signed safety Eddie Jackson, who was due to make $735,000 in 2020, to a four-year, $58.4 million extension ($33 million guaranteed) following his third season.

The Panthers two months ago made Christian McCaffrey the highest-paid running back ($64 million over four years) in history after his third season.

“Don’t use the pandemic excuse,” Adams wrote on Instagram.

The Cowboys signed Ezekiel Elliott to a six-year, $90 million extension ($50 million guaranteed) just prior to the start of his fourth season.

Myles Garrett and Patrick Mahomes are up next.

Aaron Donald, on the other hand, had to wait until after his fourth season to secure a six-year, $135 million contract ($87 million guaranteed) from the Rams.

Someone at some point will pay Adams between $15 million and $17 million annually.

If he continues down this path, if he continues to make a stink and become a summer distraction, it won’t be Douglas.

And Jamal Adams will get his wish: Ex-Jet for life.