Was the writing on the wall for New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas?
The team fired its head of football operations on Tuesday after a disappointing 3-8 start to the 2024 season. When Jets wide receiver Davante Adams joined the ‘Up & Adams’ show with Kay Adams on Wednesday, he said he wasn’t too surprised by the news.
‘When games aren’t being won and things don’t look the way they were intended to look, something’s gotta change,’ he said.
The six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro wideout was one of Douglas’ last acquisitions as general manager of the Jets. He traded a conditional third-round pick in the 2025 draft to the Las Vegas Raiders for Adams the day after a Week 6 loss to the Buffalo Bills on ‘Monday Night Football.’
The Jets have won one game since the trade happened – almost exactly one month ago.
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Firing Douglas is the second major move New York has made with its personnel in the middle of this season. The team previously fired head coach Robert Saleh after a Week 5 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in London.
‘I wasn’t technically here yet for the head coaching change here, but going through that in Vegas, when things aren’t working, typically, things get moved around,’ Adams said.
‘You kinda anticipate it coming just off of the scope of the season and the way that we’ve been looking as a team. They gotta place the blame or put accountability on somebody. Oftentimes it winds up on the coach and the management, and that’s just kind of how the cookie crumbles.
‘It’s not for me to say whether or not it’s the right thing to do or not. I’m just getting here, and I’m still learning about the way things work in this building and the way things have been in this building. So, I’m not here to talk about whether or not it was supposed to happen, I’m just saying that’s just typically how it goes.’
Later, Adams refuted rumors that he wasn’t someone Douglas wanted to bring in, that the decision to trade for him was one made because of pressure from ownership – or from quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Instead, the receiver says, he always felt supported by the former general manager. Adams said that even before he got to New York, Rodgers had told him about positive conversations that he (Rodgers) had had with Douglas.
‘I had no idea that that was even a thing – people thinking that I wasn’t a Joe D guy – I didn’t even know that was a narrative. But, definitely not true,’ Adams said.
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