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Numerous analysts and executives have weighed in on the Jets’ trade of Jamal Adams to Seattle, and they praise the Jets.
"There were many GMs and coaches that I talked to over the weekend [about the Jamal Adams trade] ... and most, I'd say almost all, felt that the Jets fleeced the Seattle Seahawks."
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) July 27, 2020
—@diannaESPN pic.twitter.com/OpLOfyzKKp
“I wouldn’t trade two ones for a safety,” one veteran GM told Peter King of NBC Sports. “Particularly when you’ve got to pay the safety a lot of money. I like what the Jets did.”
King called this sentiment a “common belief around the league.”
Despite what Adams brings to the table as a player, the Jets come out of this trade the winner. After trading the farm to move up three spots with Indianapolis to draft Sam Darnold in 2018 and leaving the cupboard bare roster-wise for him in subsequent seasons, they are in a position to have to go back to the well in 2020 at the position due to two largely underwhelming seasons from the USC product. In a draft class that includes Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence at the top (see here for our newly-released big board) and a win total that is standing at 6.5 on FanDuel Sportsbook, the Jets are now in prime position to do what the Bears couldn’t when they traded two firsts for Khalil Mack and what the Los Angeles Rams now cannot do after dealing two firsts for Jalen Ramsey – make a real change at quarterback should their current starter not work out.
The sad truth is that the Jets probably weren’t going to be contending in the recent future, with or without Adams. This is an organization that is likely to have two players on its active roster in 2020 who were drafted by the organization before 2018 in Maye and Brian Winters. The Bills have undergone a similar churn by drafting well, hiring the right coach and investing in bulk through free agency. The Jets have shopped at the top of the market and gotten pennies on the dollar for their investments in players such as Trumaine Johnson, C.J. Mosley and Le’Veon Bell.
There is no infrastructure in place for the Jets to succeed, and there has not been for nearly a decade. They have one winning season since 2010, and that was in 2015, when they signed a bunch of free agents and got a one-year boost. It wasn’t enough to make the playoffs, let alone go anywhere once they got there. Getting two extra first-round picks and building through the draft is still the best way to develop a long-term winner, and while it cost them their best player, it was the right thing for this team to do.