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Ex-NFL General Manager: Davante Adams’ speech to Jets is ‘a sad commentary on the team’ | News, scores, highlights, stats and rumors

Ex-NFL General Manager: Davante Adams’ speech to Jets is ‘a sad commentary on the team’ | News, scores, highlights, stats and rumors

FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - OCTOBER 27: Davante Adams #17 of the New York Jets walks the field prior to the game at Gillette Stadium on October 27, 2024 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)

Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

Davante Adams is a veteran wide receiver who saw an opportunity to lead his new team after a Week 7 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but some around the league believe that said more about the New York Jets than anything otherwise.

“It’s a sad commentary on the team that someone from the outside has to tell them what they’re doing wrong,” a former NFC general manager said Thursday in a story by ESPN’s Rich Cimini.

A Jets player also smiled and gave “no comment” when asked how it felt to have a new teammate call the team after a loss in his first game.

New York traded for Adams prior to that game, which ended in a convincing 37-15 win for the Steelers.

Cimini explained that the wide receiver’s postgame speech “caused a stir” from quarterback Aaron Rodgers and interim coach Jeff Ulbrich, who even “used it as a rallying cry during the lead-up to the game against New England.”

According to Cimini, “Adams felt an alarming ‘lack of energy and urgency’ on the field in Pittsburgh and felt compelled to address it immediately after the game, even though he had only been on the team for a few days.”

That apparent lack of urgency from the Jets reflected the GM’s comments, and the results did not change in the next game. The New England Patriots stunned Rodgers and Co. with a 25-22 win, dropping New York’s record to 2-6.

This is a team that should be in a win-now window with the 40-year-old Rodgers under center, surrounded by no shortage of weapons in Adams, Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall and others.

Instead, the Jets are in last place in the AFC East at 2-6 and will need a quick turnaround if they want to have a role in the playoff race.

Perhaps that turnaround will begin Thursday against a Houston Texans team that will be without wide receivers Nico Collins and Stefon Diggs.

If not, it will take a lot more than a speech from Adams to save the Jets season.