Jamal Adams might have asked to be traded away from the New York Jets , but his teammate, Le’Veon Bell, says the defensive back would rather just get a new contract with his current team. Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk wrote on Saturday that the problem is, the Jets don’t want to give their All-Pro safety a new deal just yet.
Despite the team not showing much willingness to talk about a new deal with Adams, Bell said he talked to his teammate, and the defender would prefer to stay in New York. Earlier in the week, Bell said he had a “great talk” with Adams. He said that talk led to Bell going to the media to make it clear that Adams wants to be a member of the Jets in 2020.
“I think he’s in the same situation I was three years ago” Bell said. “He’s a young player. He’s been at the top of the game, playing at a high level and feels like, ‘Dang, I just want to get compensated.’”
Adams has two more years left on his rookie contract. That deal will only pay him $3.6 million in 2020. The defensive back reportedly wants to become the highest-paid safety in the NFL. If he were able to get a contract that made him the highest-paid player at his position in the league, he’d be averaging about $15 million per year. Adams has also reportedly said he wanted a long-term deal. That aspect seems to jibe with Bell’s claims his teammate wants to stick around.
At the same time, Bell isn’t angry at Adams for wanting to either get paid or get traded. The running back pointed to a similar situation when he was with the Pittsburgh Steelers. In that case, the team put the franchise tag on the back when he wanted a multi-year deal. He held out the entire 2018 season and signed with the Jets the next offseason.
Because of Bell’s situation, he said he doesn’t have any problem with Adams taking a hard line.
There were reports earlier in the offseason that Adams had asked the Jets to sit down with his representatives and work out a contract. When they were reportedly slow in doing so, he went public with his request to be traded.
Reports around the Jets have said even with his request, the team reportedly hasn’t felt as though it needs to trade him away. While he is rumored to have a list of seven teams he’d be happy playing for, there reportedly hasn’t been any movement close to a resolution.
