Jets trade Adams to Seahawks
North Jersey Record
It wasn’t about the noise coming from the month and social media accounts of Jamal Adams. It was all about the draft picks coming from Seattle.
That’s the message New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas pushed July 27 when he explained why he sent his best player, Adams, to the Seahawks in a blockbuster trade that included two first-round picks coming back to the Jets.
“It really was our plan to keep Jamal here,” Douglas said on a conference call. “But … obviously we received an offer that was just too difficult to pass up and we decided to move forward.”
Douglas has been praised for extracting two first-round picks from the Seahawks for Adams, who is a great player but clearly had grown disenchanted with the Jets and wanted out. And kudos to Douglas for getting a return that few believed was possible.
But the draft picks don’t clean up the mess that Adams left on his way out the door. In the days before he got traded, Adams publicly ripped owner Woody Johnson after he was accused of inappropriate racist
DANIELLE PARHIZKARAN/NORTHJERSEY.COM
and sexist comments. Then he blasted the leadership of coach Adam Gase and accused Douglas of being shady about contract negotiations in an interview with the New York Daily News.
Adams was traded a day later, but Douglas said that wasn’t the reason why.
“This is a business. You don’t take things personally,” Douglas said. “Obviously, there was reason why those things were said. I don’t take those things personally, I don’t think anyone took those things personally. You’ve got to understand why those things were said and I can promise you that didn’t affect us with any of our decision-making that happened over the past week.”
But it’s hard to imagine that Adams’ comments weren’t at least a factor in the Jets’ decision. And, of course, the possibility that Adams could have become even more vocal once he arrived for training camp had to weigh on the Jets as well.
Douglas did feel compelled to defend his negotiating with Adams, after the former Jets’ star said that Douglas backtracked after saying he would offer Adams an extension this offseason.
“I just want to make it clear that I never promised an offer to Jamal or his agent, nor was I ever dishonest or ambiguous in any negotiations with their camp,” Douglas said.
Douglas said the Jets “weren’t in a position” to offer Adams a contract this offseason because of the current economic situation and because so few defensive players who are first-round picks have been extended after their third season since the CBA rules changed in 2011: Carolina’s Luke Kuechly, Houston’s JJ Watt and Cleveland’s Myles Garrett.