Davante Adams noticed several problems in just one game with the New York Jets that made him feel he needed to speak out.
After a tough 37-15 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers left the Jets feeling frustrated, Adams stood in the middle of the locker room and shared his thoughts.
“It’s not really my personality to see something that’s not right and to just let it go on, regardless of whether it’s from the coaches, players, management, support staff, whoever,” Adams said Wednesday. “There was a lack of energy and urgency out there. And it was apparent, especially coming from, you know, I’ve played on teams that have that winning culture.
“And just basically, I just took a moment to let them know.” He didn’t shout — “but it wasn’t quiet,” Adams mentioned — after the Jets lost their fourth straight game, bringing their record to 2-5.
“I thought it was the realest speech I’d ever heard in a locker room in 20 years,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said.
Adams was traded from Las Vegas to New York on October 15 and had only been with the Jets for five days. He felt unsure about speaking up so soon and how the players would react, most of whom he didn’t know well.
“I’ve got to do whatever I’ve got to do to help this team move forward,” Adams said. “And lacking energy, I mean, that’s a prerequisite to be able to go out there and have a good year or have a good play or whatever it is. So in my mind, it was something that I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I didn’t speak up on it.”
The team received Adams’ impromptu speech well, especially since he had three catches for 30 yards and made a crucial tackle on an interception during his Jets debut.
“I thought it was spot on, was amazing,” interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “For a guy to just show up to have the feel of the heartbeat of our locker room and to speak on it was — he’s making us better in so many ways. And it’s not just the stuff between the white lines.”
Rodgers mentioned after the game that he felt the team’s energy was low before the game and at halftime, and Adams agreed with this observation. “I don’t care if it got to be fake, you’ve got to bring some juice,” Adams said.
Adams, who played eight seasons with Rodgers in Green Bay before being traded to Las Vegas in 2022, noticed his teammates not celebrating each other after big plays or showing support on the sideline. He highlighted Breece Hall’s 57-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter, noting that the Jets couldn’t build off that moment’s energy.
“Those plays are supposed to be contagious for the rest of the team,” Adams said.
The three-time All-Pro made it clear he didn’t come to the Jets to be a savior, but acknowledged that there were a lot of eyes on them Sunday night — including Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who was in attendance.
“Everybody was looking, you know, the whole world,” Adams said. “Trump was at the game. I don’t know if that’s because of me or not, but I mean, everybody’s sitting there expecting it to be me going out there and put up 200 yards and three (touchdowns). That’s a storybook ending to it and obviously that would have been amazing if that happened.
“But I’m here to help shift this culture more than anything.”
Adams comes to New York after playing for teams that have won a total of seven Super Bowl titles — four with the Packers and three with the Raiders. The Jets have not made the playoffs for a record 13 seasons in a row and haven’t played in a Super Bowl since Joe Namath led the team to its only Lombardi Trophy at the end of the 1968 season.
“I’m not going to call any organization that I’m a part of a losing organization,” Adams said. “But obviously there’s been some of that in the past, in recent years around here. And it’s a little bit of everything.
Obviously personnel, but I would say with this team, it’s more just learning how to win and what it takes, the small things that necessarily don’t have to come from the owner or the general manager. This is something that you can solve within the team if you’ve got the right people in here, guys that know how to win.
“And it’s not just about having good players because we have that. You’ve got to have guys that understand and have been on teams that have won sometimes. And that’s a big reason why I’m here.”
