Jets' Davante Adams makes it clear that the team needs a culture change
New York Jets wide receiver Davante Adams (17) warms up before an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. Credit: AP/Gene J. Puskar
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Davante Adams wasted little time in letting his new teammates know they need to play with more energy and their performance last game was unacceptable.
Adams spoke up in the locker room after his Jets’ debut on Sunday. He delivered a passionate speech about what he felt was missing in the Jets’ 37-15 loss to the Steelers.
The problems go deeper than a lack of energy. Adams made it clear on Wednesday that the Jets need a culture change, too.
“It’s not really my personality to see something that is not right and just let it go on,” Adams said. “Obviously, there was a lack of energy and urgency out there and it was apparent, especially coming from I played on teams that had that winning culture. Basically, I took a moment to let them know that.”
Adams, who forced a trade from the Raiders to the Jets last week, is one of the most accomplished players on the team. He made six Pro Bowls, was All-Pro three times and played in four NFC championship games with Green Bay.
After only one game with the Jets, Adams let them know they’re wasting their opportunity to have a good season. He said he “wouldn’t have been able to sleep” if he didn’t say something.
“I had reservations about speaking up too early and being too vocal too early, but in my mind, I said, ‘[Expletive] that’ because we don’t have time,” Adams said. “I got to do whatever I got to do to help this team move forward. I’m here to help shift this culture more than anything. I can go out there and make the plays that I can make and try to influence the games as much as I can. I’m trying to enforce a winning mindset on these guys.”
“It wasn’t a big rah-rah thing. It was more to bring awareness to it because a lot of these guys in here haven’t been anywhere else where they have won and had the urgency that it takes in order to be a good team. This team being so talented roster-wise, it’s a waste to have everybody out there and have a dead sideline like that.”
The Jets played with little life and little resistance. They were outscored 31-0 over the last 30:27 of the game.
Adams made a play that exemplified what was missing. He chased down Beanie Bishop Jr. after he intercepted Aaron Rodgers, and made a diving tackle at the 1-yard line and kept him out of the end zone.
Rodgers has seen Adams speak his mind before with the Packers, but he said this was different.
“I thought it was the realest speech I ever heard in a locker room in 20 years,” Rodgers said. “That was some real you know what.”
Rodgers told Adams on the ride him from the game he’s proud of him. Interim coach Jeff Ulbrich also appreciated Adams’ words, calling them “spot on” and said it’s “amazing for guy to just show up and to have the feel of the heartbeat of the locker room and to speak on it.”
It could also have a negative effect, too, if players who have been with the Jets for years resent it. But Adams said he received “amazing feedback” from everyone, including Jets’ ownership.
“Everybody had something to say about it,” Adams said. “I don’t think there’s one person in there it didn’t resonate with. It’s not like guys in here are just lazy. We made some plays. It wasn’t to the standard that I see fit in order to create a winning culture.”
Adams said if the Jets don’t play with more energy and for each other Sunday in New England then it’s time to sound the alarm.
“The first step is me bringing awareness to it and guys were mature about it and I could see it in everybody’s eyes that it was something they had never heard or been exposed to. That’s part of the problem but also why I can’t get down and get upset about them.
“If you go out the next game and we have the same type of issues then it’s a bigger issue. Me, regardless of if I just got here, I’m a leader of this football team. Whether or not every single person in there sees it that way, that’s how I see it and that’s my responsibility that’s something that I take seriously.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
