By Tom Terzulli
The quest for 0-16 is over. Unbelievably, through three contests on the young season, the Jets have won a game and the Giants haven’t. Crazier than that, the Jets actually looked pretty good in a 20-6 romp of the Dolphins on Sunday. Now, as fun as that was to watch as a Jets fan, I’m kind of hoping it doesn’t happen again. I’m fully on the “Suck for Sam” train as it chugs towards the 2018 NFL Draft. We got our fun win of the season, not let’s get back to what we were supposed to do: lose.
Just because I want to see Gang Green lose some more, doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed watching a young core of players succeed on the field. No youngster has had more success than Jamal Adams.
Adams, a 6-1, 213-pound safety, was taken with the sixth pick by the Jets in this year’s draft. The selection was almost universally applauded by fans and pundits alike. He was generally considered one of the safest picks in the draft, a pro ready player who could come in and give a team production right away. However, this is the Jets we are talking about here; it is in our nature to brace for the worst.
Through the first two games of the Jets’ season, both pretty embarrassing losses against the Bills (21-12) and Raiders (45-20), Adams gave us few appetizers. On the first drive of the game, he rocked Buffalo tight end Charles Clay to force an interception by second year Jet Juston Burris. In the Black Hole, he silenced Beast Mode, albeit for one play, with a huge goal line stop of the resurgent Marshawn Lynch. He was akin to a green and white Energizer Bunny, playing all over the field, racking up nine tackles and seven solo stops.
By this point, I was already on the Adams hype train. Of course it was demoralizing to see my favorite team get demolished on the field, but my eyes were trained on the future, a future with Sam Darnold at the helm and Jamal Adams captaining a skilled secondary. Yet, even I, a massive Adams supporter since the day he was drafted back in April, could have never predicted what he was capable of in his Broadway debut.
In his very first regular season game at Metlife Stadium, Adams exemplified what made him such a valuable piece, his versatility. In the first half alone, the Lewisville, Texas native racked up his first professional sack, two tackles for a loss and a pass defended.
On the game’s first play, he set the tone for a suddenly on-track New York run defense. Dolphins running back Jay Ajayi, who was the league’s fifth-best rusher coming into the game, was forced out of bounds after getting upended for a two-yard loss. That was the first of a pair of tackles for a loss on the day, helping New York to just 30 rushing yards allowed, after surrendering 370 versus Buffalo and Oakland.
He continued his all-around play on back-to-back plays in the second quarter, speeding down a sideline to bat down a Jay Cutler pass to wide receiver DeVante Parker. He then sacked the previously retired QB on third-and-8.
Adams, in just a small sample size, has proven that he is everything you want in a safety. He was literally all over the field against Miami, making plays in the back field, the secondary and everywhere in between.
Everyone knows that the Jets are rebuilding, and it’s no secret most of their fans want them to lose. Maybe it is because he is on such a weak roster that Adams is able to shine and get legitimate regular season experience. He may have been lost in the shuffle on a contending team.
That is not the case in New York; Adams is the perfect face for what we hope will be the “New Era” Jets. These are our players, young players that are grown and developed within the Jets system.
So Jet fans, let’s bask in the glow of victory for one week, continue to lose and watch what our stud safety leads us into what we hope will be a promising future.
