Pros and cons of the New York Jets trading Jamal Adams

Jamal Adams will skip voluntary virtual workouts without a new contract, but should the New York Jets trade him?

The New York Jets have had a relatively drama-free offseason, but that all changed this morning when reports emerged that star safety Jamal Adams is planning to skip the team’s virtual offseason workouts.

The relationship between the Jets and Adams nearly fractured at the trade deadline when Adams got upset that Jets’ general manager Joe Douglas listened to offers for him. The sides appeared to patch things up by the end of the season, with Douglas telling reporters at the Scouting Combine that he wanted to make Adams a Jet for life.

The sides have not begun contract talks at this point and skipping the virtual OTAs could be an indication that Adams is planning a holdout in training camp. The Jets have Adams’ rights for another two years so there isn’t a sense of urgency to get a deal done now on the team’s side since they should have more cap space to work out an extension after the 2020 season.

If Adams does threaten a holdout, however, the Jets may be tempted to listen to offers again for their best player. The Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens expressed a ton of interest in Adams at the deadline, but Douglas was holding out for a pair of first-round picks for the player some would call the best safety in football.

If a team is willing to massively overpay for Adams in a trade it is a move the Jets should seriously consider. New York’s roster is extremely thin thanks to years of poor drafting and free-agent spending, a problem Douglas hopes to remedy through better scouting and drafting.

Adding a haul of top picks could provide the Jets more long-term value than simply retaining Adams, who is elite but hasn’t been able to elevate New York’s defense to an elite level by himself. Adams’ value may never be higher than it is now so the opportunity is there for Douglas to strike while the iron is hot.

Unless they are overwhelmed with a stupid offer from another team the smarter play for the Jets is to retain Adams. Special players are hard to find in the NFL and Adams is the Jets’ best draft pick since Darrelle Revis, who turned into the best cornerback in the league.

The Jets found themselves in a similar position with Revis in 2013 and they opted to trade him to Tampa Bay, receiving a first-round pick that year and a ’14 fourth-rounder. Those picks turned into Sheldon Richardson and Jalen Saunders while Revis spent just one season in Tampa, making it a deal the Jets “won,” but in retrospect they clearly got 50 cents on the dollar in the trade.

If the Jets end up trading Adams they will undoubtedly spend years trying to replace him, which is a fool’s errand in this league. People forget that the Jets burned a first-round pick in that 2013 draft on Dee Milliner, who they hoped would fill Revis’ shoes, only to watch the Alabama corner become one of the biggest busts in franchise history.

Smart teams don’t deal away elite talent and the Jets have shown that they are trying to become a smarter organization under Douglas. Dealing away Adams is counterproductive to a rebuild so it should be a last resort for the Jets.