The Jets don’t want Jamal Adams to go anywhere anytime soon.
The Daily News has learned that Gang Green will pick up the All-Pro safety’s fifth-year option before next Monday’s deadline. The value of the Adams’ option will be $9.86 million, the transition tag for safeties this year. Per terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, Adams’ option will be guaranteed for injury only when the team submits the official paperwork in the coming days. It will become fully guaranteed on the first day of the 2021 league year.
It’s a smart and obvious choice given Adams’ value to the team (and organization).
Adams is the second player in the AFC East to have his option picked up. The Bills exercised Pro Bowl cornerback Tre’Davious White’s option last week.
General manager Joe Douglas later confirmed the News report.
“Of course we were going to do that,” Douglas said on ESPN radio. “And excited to do it.”
Adams, who is scheduled to make $3.5 million in the final year of his rookie contract, doesn’t intend to participate at the start of the Jets’ virtual off-season program that began Monday as he looks for a contract extension.
“With Jamal, this is voluntary,” head coach Adam Gase said Monday about his best player skipping the start of the offseason program that will include two-hour meetings four times a week. “That’s just what it is. It’s one of those things that guys have a choice if they want to do this, they can. If they don’t, it’s just what it is. That’s the CBA rules and there’s nothing that we can really do about that.”
Adams, frankly, has earned a monster payday after establishing himself as the team’s most productive asset. The two-time Pro Bowler is the emotional leader and engine of Gregg Williams’ defense.
“My stance on Jamal hasn’t changed,” Douglas said after the draft. “At some point, we’re going to get together with him and his representatives.”
Douglas recently reiterated that “the plan is for Jamal to be a Jet for life.”
Along those lines, the player should be compensated accordingly. Linebacker C.J. Mosley, who averages $17 million in his five-year deal, is currently the team’s highest paid player. If the Jets are a meritocracy, Adams will eclipse that. A fair deal would be a fully guaranteed three-year extension averaging more than $17 million/year to tack on to Adams’ existing two years.
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