It’s no secret that Woody Johnson is all in this season.
Tuesday’s acquisition of Davante Adams, a star receiver and Aaron Rodgers’ favorite target, is proof that Johnson is doubling all-in.
After all, the Rodgers window is only open until this year and possibly next.
His Jets are struggling again, so what else is new? — Johnson appeared embarrassed for the first time last Tuesday when he fired coach Robert Saleh after two straight losses and a 2-3 record.
And now, after the Jets fell to 2-4 following a 23-20 loss to the Bills on Monday night at MetLife Stadium, the team’s owner has asked for another lifeline, giving general manager Joe Douglas the green light to execute the Adams trade.
The long-rumored union with the Jets and reunion with Rodgers has finally come to fruition.
The Jets are hoping Adams, who turns 32 on Christmas Eve, is the gift they need to end a 13-year drought without a playoff berth.
The question now is how fast Adams can play with a hamstring injury.
The Jets want to play Sunday night against the Steelers in Pittsburgh, a critical game they need to win to stay relevant in the AFC East.
Adams’ cost was a 2025 conditional third-round pick who could be a second-rounder pending some performance benchmarks, and the Jets are taking the remainder of Adams’ Raiders salary.
According to ESPN, he is owed nearly $12 million by the end of this season and is under contract for an annual salary of about $36 million each season in 2025 and 2026.
If Adams is what Rodgers is missing and he can help the team make the playoffs for the first time since 2010, the money spent and draft picks could be the deal of the decade for them.
Follow the latest information on the New York Jets’ trade for star receiver Davante Adams.
Adams was reportedly on a red-eye flight from Las Vegas to New Jersey around the time Rodgers overtook receiver Mike Williams on a desperate 3rd-and-16 pass picked off by the Bills to seal the Jets’ fate Monday night.
So that play or the result of the game did not trigger this trade, which has been in the works for several weeks.
But the way Rodgers threw Williams under the bus after the two failed to connect on a pass play at least fueled the public’s desire for a reunion with Adams.
In his post-game interview, Rodgers told reporters that Williams took the wrong route by going inside when he should have been outside.
Replays did not show Williams breaking inside. To the naked eye, it looked like Rodgers had taken him down and Williams had slipped to adjust the ball when Buffalo cornerback Taron Johnson picked it off.
Whatever the actual truth of the play, Rodgers is very obsessed with detail, nuance and chemistry, and no one has more of those three things 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 was selected to the Pro Bowl six times and first-team All-Pro three times.
Now, with 18 catches for 209 yards and one TD in three games with the Raiders this season, Adams joins Garrett Wilson, Allen Lazard and Williams in the Jets receiving corps.
Wondering how the addition of Adams will affect Wilson and the chemistry he has tried to build with Rodgers has mixed results, with Williams either buried on the depth chart or traded.
The Jets lost to Buffalo, where they went 1-for-4 in the red zone, missed two short field goals and committed 11 penalties for 110 yards.
Shouldn’t it get better from here?
Johnson is investing in it.
“He’s been open to everything, especially his relationship with the quarterback,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday while confirming the deal with Adams at the NFL’s fall meetings in Atlanta. “That’s very important.”
The only thing that truly “matters” to Jets fans is that the latest desperate move by a desperate owner results in the team winning the same game it lost on Monday night. Last week in London to the Vikings and the week before that at home to the Broncos.
Because an argument could be made that the Jets have lost their last three games by a combined 10 points. And surely Davante Adams would have made up for at least those 10 points.
