Commentary

Jets' non-deals still leave hurt feelings

New York Jets safety Jamal Adams (33) gets prepped before an NFL football game against the New England Patriots Monday October 21, 2019 in East Rutherford, N.J. (Damian Strohmeyer via AP)
New York Jets safety Jamal Adams (33) gets prepped before an NFL football game against the New England Patriots Monday October 21, 2019 in East Rutherford, N.J. (Damian Strohmeyer via AP)

Strip away the semantics and spin surrounding Tuesday's trade deadline and here's what's left: The New York Jets were willing to move Le'Veon Bell, Jamal Adams and Robby Anderson to unload a bad contract (Bell) and acquire valuable draft capital to help new General Manager Joe Douglas rebuild this terrible team.

Although Gang Green failed to ship off any of those guys, Adams unloaded on Douglas and Coach Adam Gase at a perceived slight.

"At the end of the week last week, I sat down with the GM and Coach Gase and told them I want to be here in New York," Adams tweeted shortly after Douglas met with the media Tuesday. "I was told yesterday by my agent that the GM then went behind my back and shopped me around to teams, even after I asked him to keep me here! Crazy business."

Douglas explicitly stated that he didn't shop Adams, Bell or Anderson, but it's largely semantics given that the Jets were open to engaging in discussions with interested teams. The Dallas Cowboys offered a first-round pick plus an additional pick, while the Ravens were also interested in the Pro Bowl safety, according to sources.

Although Adams also tweeted that "any reports of me asking to be traded from the New York Jets are completely false," my understanding is that he would have welcomed returning to his hometown of Dallas if the team opted to trade him.

"You guys see Jamal every day," Douglas said. "He wears the 'C' for a reason. The guy's an absolute warrior. He's the heartbeat of this team and this defense. He's a mission-statement guy. He's a guy when you talk about the traits you're looking for, that's Jamal."

The bottom line is that the Jets are in full-fledged rebuild mode after their 1-6 start. Gang Green would have loved to rid themselves of Bell's large contract, but the financials just didn't make sense for interested teams.

Gase's fingerprints are all over the decision to try to move on from Bell. The Daily News reported in May that Gase didn't want to sign Bell for several reasons. The coach preferred a committee backfield rather than a player who would want to dominate touches.

Gase also had concerns about a potential personality conflict with the player. He later changed his stance by telling people privately that he didn't want Bell because he didn't feel the need to invest that much money ($27 million guaranteed at signing) for a running back.

Douglas would not have given Bell (or C.J. Mosley) that kind of money, either.

Regardless, the contract was too big of a hurdle to clear. So, Bell stayed.

"If a team calls, I'm going to listen," Douglas said. "I just want to say -- and I said this to Le'Veon -- he's probably one of our toughest ... probably the player with the [best] work [ethic]. You see him every day at practice. One of, if not our best, practice player. So obviously there were a few calls. We didn't get the value that we thought was worth losing the player."

Adams and Bell aren't considered untouchable players. When Douglas was told of Adams' comments on social media later, the GM told ESPN New York radio that "I think someone told him the wrong thing. We were not shopping Jamal. I can promise you that."

Bell, meanwhile, took to Twitter to dole out the company line about "the process."

"It takes a process to build a winning program," Bell said in a minute-long video. "I am happy as hell to be a NY Jet. I'm happy to be here in spite of all the trade rumors and talks. I am here and I am happy to be here. But everybody has to have a little bit of patience ... If it happened overnight, there'd be a whole bunch of teams, snapping their fingers and just making it happen."

Sports on 10/30/2019

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