It’s no secret that Woody Johnson has been all-in for this season.
Tuesday’s acquisition of Davante Adams, the star receiver and all-time favorite target of Aaron Rodgers, is evidence of Johnson doubling down on all-in and becoming ALL-IN.
The Rodgers window, after all, is open for only so long — this year and maybe next year.
With his Jets again struggling — what else is new? — Johnson showed his first sign of panic when he fired head coach Robert Saleh last Tuesday after two consecutive close losses and a 2-3 record.
And now, after the Jets fell to 2-4 following Monday night’s 23-20 loss to the Bills at MetLife Stadium, the owner called for another lifeline when he gave general manager Joe Douglas the green light to execute the trade for Adams.
It’s a long-rumored union with the Jets and reunion with Rodgers that’s finally come to fruition.
The Jets hope Adams, who turns 32 on Christmas Eve, is just the gift they need to put an end to their 13-year drought without a playoff berth.
The question now is how soon Adams, who’s been nursing a hamstring injury, can play?
The Jets would like that to be Sunday night against the Steelers in Pittsburgh in what’s now a critical game they need to win to retain any relevance in the AFC East.
The cost for Adams was a 2025 conditional third-round pick that can become a second-rounder pending some of his performance benchmarks, and the Jets are taking on the remainder of Adams’ Raiders salary.
According to ESPN, he’s owed nearly $12 million through the end of this season and is under contract for 2025 and 2026 with his annual salary about $36 million for each of those seasons.
If Adams is the piece Rodgers has been missing and he can help propel them to the playoffs for the first time since 2010, the money and the draft pick spent will turn out to the bargain of the decade for them.
Follow the latest on the New York Jets’ trade for star receiver Davante Adams:
- Davante Adams traded to Jets in blockbuster reunion with Aaron Rodgers
- Davante Adams makes surprise ‘Pat McAfee Show’ appearance as Aaron Rodgers reacts to bombshell Jets trade
- Davante Adams reacts to colossal Jets trade with cryptic Instagram post
- Davante Adams took red-eye flight to NJ as Jets finalized trade
- Aaron Rodgers lacking fourth-quarter magic as Davante Adams joins Jets
Adams reportedly was on a red-eye flight from Las Vegas to New Jersey around the time that Rodgers underthrew receiver Mike Williams on a desperate third-and-16 pass that was picked off by the Bills to seal the Jets’ fate Monday night.
So, neither that play nor the game’s result triggered this trade, which has been in the works for weeks.
But the way Rodgers threw Williams under the bus after the two failed to connect on the pass play was — at the very least — a public yearning for a reunion with Adams.
Rodgers, in his postgame interview, told reporters that Williams ran the wrong route, cutting to the inside when he was supposed to stay outside.
On the replay, it didn’t appear that Williams was breaking inside. To the naked eye, it looked like Rodgers underthrew him and Williams slipped trying to adjust for the ball as Buffalo cornerback Taron Johnson picked it off.
Whatever the actual truth to the play was, Rodgers is an intense stickler to detail, nuance and chemistry, and no one has more of those three with him than Adams.
Adams has 890 career receptions for 10,990 yards and 96 TDs. With Rodgers as his quarterback from 2014 to 2021, he had 615 receptions for 7,529 yards and 68 TDs.
He’s been voted to the Pro Bowl six times and has been a first-team All-Pro three times.
Now Adams, who has 18 catches for 209 yards and one TD in three games with the Raiders this season, joins Garrett Wilson, Allen Lazard and Williams in the Jets receiving corps.
It’s fair to wonder what the addition of Adams does to Wilson and the chemistry he’s been trying to build with Rodgers with mixed results, and Williams, who may be buried on the depth chart (or traded).
The Jets are coming off a loss to Buffalo in which they were 1-for-4 in the red zone, missed two short field goals and committed 11 penalties for 110 yards.
It has to get better from here, doesn’t it?
Johnson is banking on it.
“He opens up everything, particularly having that relationship with the quarterback,’’ Johnson told reporters on Tuesday at the NFL’s fall meetings in Atlanta while confirming the deal for Adams. “That’s very important.”
The only thing that’s truly “important” to Jets fans is that this latest desperate move by the desperate owner translates into winning games like the one the team lost Monday night … and the previous week to the Vikings in London … and the week before that to the Broncos at home.
Because an argument can be made that the Jets have given away these past three games, lost by a combined 10 points. And surely, Davante Adams would have made up for at least those 10 points.