NY Jets: Does Patrick Mahomes’ extension impact the Jamal Adams situation?

NY Jets’ safety Jamal Adams likely took note of Patrick Mahomes’ recent contract extension.

NY Jets‘ safety Jamal Adams hasn’t been shy about his desire for a contract extension this offseason — and that’s putting it bluntly. From complaining vocally on social media to formally requesting a trade, Adams has made his intentions very clear.

He wants out. Only the Jets aren’t in any hurry to fulfill his wishes.

To this point, the Jets’ biggest reason for their reluctance to pay Adams has been the cap concerns caused by the ongoing worldwide pandemic. And on the surface, that makes a ton of sense.

No one knows how the loss of revenue from a potential fan-less season (or at least partially fan-less) will affect next year’s cap situation. But it’s been estimated that it could decrease by as much as $40 million or more which would create an unprecedented situation.

And looking around the NFL, it seemed as though most teams were following a similar logic with very few transactions taking place following free agency. Teams were pretty hesitant to give their star players expensive extensions.

But that changed on Monday following the news of Kansas City Cheifs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes‘ record-shattering 10-year extension. The deal is reportedly worth up to $503 million and is the most lucrative contract in sports history.

Even typing that, it still doesn’t feel real.

Regardless, the Jets’ excuse for why they haven’t paid Adams took a major hit as a result. If the Chiefs are willing to give their quarterback the most expensive contract in the history of sports, why haven’t the Jets even sat down to talk with Adams?

That’s the question that Adams is likely asking himself today.

Now, this isn’t meant to vilify Joe Douglas who seems to be doing his best to handle such a contentious situation. Rather, this is likely a peak at Adams’ mindset at the moment.

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What does NY Jets’ safety Jamal Adams think about this situation?

He’s thinking, “clearly the pandemic wasn’t an issue for the Chiefs, why is it an issue for the Jets?” Obviously, there’s more nuance to the situation than that and Mahomes deserves to be in a league of his own, but that’s not what we’re focusing on here.

The Mahomes extension gives Adams the ability to add more fuel to the fire that is his growing mistrust of the organization. Adams doesn’t feel as though the Jets are genuine when they insist he’s an important part of their future.

He feels expendable — and for a player as talented and prideful as he is, that’s a mortal sin.

Of course, the structure of Mahomes’ contract should be taken into consideration. His $24 million cap hit next season is still quite large, but it’s nothing compared to the $42 million he’ll be making just two years later.

That was done by design.

However, the same “structure” argument could be used to defend Adams’ point as well. Although it was originally suspected that Mahomes’ extension would be tied to a percentage of the salary cap that turned out not to be the case.

The Jets would have had much more of a case if that were true as it would show that Mahomes was betting on his team/the league just as much as they were betting on him.

Essentially, if the cap were to indeed shrink next year, Mahomes would be given a smaller salary thus justifying the pandemic rationale. But that isn’t what happened, and that hurts the Jets case in the eyes of Adams.

The bottom line is that the Jets have control over Adams. But they can’t force him to re-sign long-term. They can’t snap their fingers and magically make him happy. Sure they can essentially make him play for them this year, but what about after that?

Eventually, they won’t have control and they will have lost their most valuable asset.

The Jets want to repair their relationship with Jamal Adams — they still plan to extend him long-term. But he doesn’t trust the organization right now, and the Mahomes extension only fuels his discontent.

Short-term, nothing changes following Mahomes’ extension. But in the long-term, this is just another event in the growing log of grievances Adams has with the Jets.

And with that, his resentment grows.