Jets catch another brutal stray as Davante Adams takes unprompted jab

The New York Jets somehow continue to find their way into conversations they have nothing to do with, especially when former players take the national stage. In fact, the Jets might just be the most talked-about team of the NFL's Wild Card weekend.

During Fox’s pregame coverage ahead of the Rams’ Wild Card matchup against the Panthers, Davante Adams sat down with teammate Puka Nacua to discuss lessons learned and what it takes to win in the postseason.

The question itself had nothing to do with the Jets. Nacua asked Adams what he had learned from past losses that could help the Rams during their playoff run. Adams, however, took the opportunity to slander his former team because... why not? It's the Jets, after all.

The Jets once again became the punchline, this time on national television. Here’s what Adams had to say.

"If you don’t bring your best stuff, you’re gonna be at home with the Jets two seconds after that."

Davante Adams

Davante Adams is the latest former player to take a shot at the Jets

Adams’ comment also feels odd when viewed through the lens of how his Jets tenure actually played out. After being released at his own request, Adams signed a two-year, $44 million deal with the Los Angeles Rams and went on to have a tremendous season.

In 14 games, Adams caught 60 passes for 789 yards and led the NFL with 14 receiving touchdowns. His production with the Jets in 2024 was hardly the issue, either.

After arriving in a midseason trade from the Raiders, Adams posted 67 catches for 854 yards and seven touchdowns in just 11 games, a pace that would have projected to roughly 1,320 yards and 11 scores over a full season. The problem, as always, was that the numbers did not translate into wins.

The Jets originally traded for Adams to reunite him with Aaron Rodgers, doing right by a star receiver who wanted out of Las Vegas and giving Rodgers his favorite target from his Green Bay days.

When the experiment crashed and burned in dramatic fashion, the Jets also did right by Adams again by releasing him in March, which is what makes the repeated stray shots puzzling.

The Jets did not force Adams into a bad situation, nor did they block his exit. Yet they continue to serve as an easy punchline.

Earlier this week, Rodgers took his own thinly veiled jab while praising the Pittsburgh Steelers organization, calling it the “antithesis” of his time in New York and pointing to a lack of leaks and outside noise.

That critique is certainly ironic given Rodgers’ weekly appearances on The Pat McAfee Show, which many around the league believe contributed significantly to the very distractions he now criticizes. During his Jets tenure, Rodgers repeatedly pointed to organizational leaks as a problem, despite being one of the most visible and outspoken figures in the building.

Why former players continue to take shots at the Jets is anyone’s guess, but the pattern is undeniable at this point. The franchise has become the league’s easiest target. "The Jets" are essentially shorthand for dysfunction, whether the criticism is fair or not.

The narrative has grown so loud that it now bleeds into draft discourse, as seen this week with Dante Moore, whose College Football Playoff struggles immediately sparked jokes about him being “a Jets quarterback already" days after numerous analysts pleaded with him to avoid the Jets entirely.

The Jets may not always deserve the ridicule, but until they consistently win, they will keep finding themselves on the receiving end of unprompted strays from former stars, national media, and just about everyone else.