It took Davante Adams six days of being a Jet to see problems with the team’s culture and feel the need to speak up about it.
Adams gave a speech to the Jets in the locker room following Sunday night’s 37-15 loss to the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
Despite only joining the team less than a week before the game, Adams felt the need to speak up about what he perceived as a lack of energy from the team.
“Obviously, there was a lack of energy and urgency out there. It was apparent,” Adams said Wednesday. “I’ve played on teams that have that winning culture. Basically, I took a moment to let them know. I had reservations about speaking up too early and being too vocal too early, but in my mind I said, ‘F that’ because we don’t have time. I’ve got to do whatever I’ve got to do to help this team move forward.
“I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I didn’t speak up on it.”
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers said the speech from Adams was well received by the team.
“I thought it was the realest speech I’ve ever heard in a locker room in 20 years,” Rodgers said.
It would be interesting to know what Jets players who have been on the team for a while thought about a player who just arrived telling them about the team’s culture.
But Adams said he was surprised at what he saw in the game against the Steelers.
He cited how the sideline looked dead after Breece Hall’s 57-yard reception.
“A lot of these guys in here haven’t been anywhere else where they’ve won and have had that urgency that it takes in order to be a good team,” Adams said. “This team being so talented roster-wise, it’s just a waste to have everybody out there and to have a dead sideline like that.”
Adams only had three catches for 30 yards in the loss, a disappointing start to his Jets career.
But Adams said he does not see his role as only producing on the field for the Jets but also changing the organization.
“I’m not here to be the savior,” Adams said. “The whole world … [Donald] Trump was at the game. I’m not sure if that was because of me or not. Everybody is sitting here expecting it to be me go out there and put up 200 yards and three [touchdowns]. That’s a storybook ending. Obviously, that would have been amazing if that happened. I’m here to help shift this culture more than anything.”
Adams said he received positive feedback from everyone in the locker room, including the “owner,” presumably that was Woody Johnson, although Christopher Johnson was also in the room.
The fact that Adams had to be the one to speak up could point to a leadership void on the team prior to his arrival.
“I could see it in everybody’s eyes that it was something that they had never heard or been exposed to,” Adams said. “That’s part of the problem.”
Adams has played for the Packers and the Raiders, two franchises with proud histories.
But the Raiders have not had much success in recent years either.
Still, Adams said the Raiders players supported each other even at the end of losses, something he did not see from the Jets.
A reporter asked Adams who is to blame for the Jets culture.
“It’s on everybody,” Adams said. “Anytime an organization is on a losing streak or a losing organization for the ones that are … I’m not going to call any organization that I’m a part of a losing organization 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’d 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 you can solve within the team if you have the right people in here, guys that know how to win. It’s not just about having good players because we have that. You’ve got to have guys that understand and have won sometimes and that’s a big reason why I’m here.”