Jets WR Davante Adams says he would 'love to be part of this football team' going forward
Jets wide receiver Davante Adams (17) attempts tp pull in a pass during the first half of the Seattle Seahawks at the New York Jets on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. Credit: Lee S. Weissman/Lee S. Weissman
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Davante Adams was certain the Jets would win more after he joined them in October and reunited with Aaron Rodgers. Now Adams, like Rodgers and many others on this team, faces an uncertain future.
The franchise will undergo changes in the front office and coaching staff, which will lead to a lot of new faces in the locker room. Adams is one of many Jets who could be playing his final five games with the team.
Adams’ cap number next season is a whopping $38.4 million, non-guaranteed. If the Jets opt to bring him back, they will want to restructure that and lessen the hit.
Adams would have to agree to that and potentially be willing to return even if Rodgers doesn’t. Adams pushed for the trade from Las Vegas to play with his old Green Bay quarterback again.
Everything is up in the air, including what Adams wants in 2025.
“I truly don’t have the answer right now,” he said. “I would love to be a part of this football team. Came in and Day One I was welcomed.”
He said he feels a closeness with Jets players beyond Rodgers, but Adams, who will turn 32 on Christmas Eve, knows massive changes are coming that will affect what he does.
“I love to go to war with these guys. But it’s a business,” he said. “There’s a lot of pieces, contractually and with Aaron’s future, and a lot of things that I can’t control. So we’re just going to finish this year off strong.
“Hopefully we do enough where everybody is feeling like it’s the right thing to do for us to stay here. After this year, we’ll assess and we’ll figure that out.”
A strong finish likely won’t change what the Jets decide to do with Rodgers and others. Rodgers, a four-time MVP, called it “ridiculous” that a good end to the season might determine whether ownership wants him to return.
“If it takes these five games,” he said, “maybe they don’t know what I bring to the table.”
The Jets (3-9) have greatly underachieved. They will finish with a losing record for the ninth straight season and would be eliminated from playoff contention for the 14th consecutive year with a loss Sunday in Miami.
Since Adams was acquired on Oct. 15, the Jets are 1-5. He said he envisioned the Jets winning every game and him having 150 to 200 yards in his debut. It’s been a major letdown, but Adams has no remorse about requesting to be dealt to the Jets.
“Extremely disappointed in the win-loss column, but as far as making the move, I don’t regret it, not even one bit,” he said. “Nobody in here, nobody really period knows what I was going through and knows the reasons why it led to having it be this way. But I don’t regret it at all.
“I got to come in here, become a part of a new team, got welcomed with open arms, got to play with one of my favorite quarterbacks, one of my best friends.”
Both players wanted it. Rodgers opened his home to Adams when he first arrived and let him stay there until he got a place. Their chemistry is evident at times, but they haven’t connected as much as anticipated. Adams has been targeted 58 times as a Jet. He’s caught 31 passes for 344 yards and two touchdowns.
In many ways, it hasn’t been the storybook season that either hoped for — especially the game results.
“That part sucks,” Rodgers said, “but the fact I get to sit next to my best friend in the league every single day is the best. He’s a fantastic guy. I hope that there’s guys who have watched him go about his business and seen what a professional he is and take some of that with them as they move forward in their careers.
“There’s a lot of people whose futures are uncertain, his just like mine. Hopefully there’s some things that we’ve done here, the way we practice, the way we communicate, that guys can take with them moving forward.”
Notes & quotes: Sauce Gardner (hamstring), Breece Hall (knee) and Alijah Vera-Tucker (ankle) didn’t practice for the second straight day . . . John Simpson (illness) and C.J. Mosley (neck) also didn’t participate . . . Solomon Thomas is the Jets’ nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for the third straight season.
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
