Jamal Adams finally got his wish: He’s on his way out of East Rutherford, NJ.
The New York Jets dealt the star safety on Saturday to the Seattle Seahawks — along with a fourth-round draft pick in 2022 — for safety Bradley McDougald, a first and third-round pick in 2021, and a first-round pick in 2022.
The deal is pending physicals, but it’s a significant haul for the Jets, who were dealt with the reality of having to trade the All-Pro after a turbulent offseason.
Having believed the Jets would offer a restructured contract this offseason, Adams’ displeasure with the organization led to a trade request last month, though reports in the past half-year suggested that he wanted to return to his hometown club, the Dallas Cowboys.
He won’t get his wish, but his wish was granted after making as much noise as possible throughout his final weeks with the club. Most recently, he went after head coach Adam Gase, saying he wasn’t right to lead the team.
“I don’t feel like he’s the right leader for this organization to reach the Promised Land,” Adams told Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. “As a leader, what really bothers me is that he doesn’t have a relationship with everybody in the building. At the end of the day, he doesn’t address the team. If there’s a problem in the locker room, he lets another coach address the team. If we’re playing s—y and we’re losing, he doesn’t address the entire team as a group at halftime. He’ll walk out of the locker room and let another coach handle it.”
While Jets general manager Joe Douglas gets the pieces to continue building the Jets toward the status of contention in an opening AFC East, the Seahawks get a golden asset to re-bolster their identity of a strong secondary once nicknamed “The Legion of Doom” that helped the organization win its first-ever Super Bowl in 2014.
The newest Jet, McDougald, started 15 games last season with the Seahawks, accruing 70 combined tackles, two interceptions, and six passes defended.
