For the second time in less than two months, Jets safety Jamal Adams has said something that reflected poorly on his team and his head coach. For the second time in less than two months, his head coach has responded by saying Adams didn’t mean what he said.
On Tuesday, Adams said that the Jets weren’t prepared to face Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield. On Wednesday, Jets coach Todd Bowles stuck a funnel in the toothpaste tube and began scraping. Again.
“He misspoke,” Bowles told reporters. “He didn’t mean it, and he’s a young player. Part of having a young player as a leader, sometimes he’s going to have growing pains. It’s a teachable moment, he understands that and we talked about it.”
Here’s what Adams said, while appearing on WFAN: “We had to be open to knowing that Baker could come in, but we were prepared for Tyrod. When Baker came in, obviously we didn’t have a game plan for him.”
“I don’t even want to go into it, but it’s just making excuses,” Bowles said on Wednesday. “I’m not trying to make excuses.”
It could be seen as making excuses. It also could be seen as revealing a major flaw in the team’s preparations. Is it a bad look for Adams to be saying something that looks and sounds like he’s calling out his coaching staff for not having the team properly prepared?
“It’s not a bad look,” Bowles said. “It’s a young player, I know what he meant. Our team knows what he meant, and we moved on from there. It’s not a bad look, it’s part of a young player getting older and dealing with the media. He’s going to have some growing pains, but we’ll work through them and he’ll be fine.”
It’s definitely a bad look that Bowles didn’t nip this problem in the bud the last time it emerged. In early August, Adams said this about the 2017 Jets, who were coached by Bowles: “[E]verybody was used to losing. You can always tell that vibe. I came in, and it was like everybody wanted to do the bare minimum. They didn’t want to go above and beyond. They didn’t want to take that extra step.”
Said Bowles in response: “Me and Jamal have talked about that. Jamal is a very young player and he is a very smart player and he speaks from his heart and no different, we talked about it. He didn’t mean a lot of things that came out wrong, but from a necessary standpoint when you give everything, and you demand people to be like you, everyone is not like you. Some people learn differently, and some don’t, but we talked about it and it is just part of being a young player. He will learn over time things to say and what he really means and what not to say. We dealt with it and we moved on.”
So whatever Bowles said in August, it didn’t stick. We’ll see whether Adams misspeaks again, maybe in late October or early November.
