As the New York Jets put the finishing touches on another frustrating loss, Davante Adams boarded a red-eye flight from Las Vegas to New Jersey ahead of a trade from his old team to his new one. No rest for the weary – Adams met with interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich Tuesday morning, underwent a physical and found time for a cameo on “The Pat McAfee Show” with Aaron Rodgers. Everyone is happy.

But happiness can be fleeting.

The Adams acquisition was a transaction that was always going to happen. Adams and Rodgers have been flirting with the idea of ​​reuniting, publicly and privately, for over a year. The Raiders entered the season without a quality quarterback on the roster. If Adams wasn’t available at the deadline last year when the Jets called (he wasn’t), or before this season when the Jets called again (he still wasn’t), he would eventually break free. If anyone had suggested this summer that the Jets would acquire Adams in mid-October, it would have been built around the idea that the star receiver was the missing piece the team needed to reach a Super Bowl. That’s not quite what this is.

Woody Johnson on all things Jets. pic.twitter.com/ycLMDKxNhI

— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) October 15, 2024

News of the Adams trade came in at 10:05 a.m. Tuesday. A week earlier, at 10:08 a.m., news broke that the Jets had fired head coach Robert Saleh. On Monday night, the Jets lost 23-20 to the Buffalo Bills, their third straight loss – and one full of the same mistakes this team had made with Saleh at the helm. The coaching change didn’t matter. They are 2-4, the first time Rodgers has ever had a losing record in six games as a starter. This is unknown territory. So the Jets called in reinforcements, his favorite wide receiver. Together, they were one of the most productive quarterback-wide receiver combinations in NFL history.

But Adams isn’t the missing piece to a Super Bowl run. The Jets are hoping he’s the missing piece that will get them out of the hole they’ve dug themselves into.

The mix of the Haason Reddick situation — the defensive lineman was dropped by his agent last week, hired a new one on Monday and cleared to seek a trade on Tuesday — only added to the chaos of the past week. Or from last year. Or from the past ten years. The Jets cause chaos.

To his credit (or to his detriment?) Woody Johnson is pulling out all the stops to get the Jets back on track at a time when they are still a few losses away from having a season completely off the rails.

But Johnson saw an opportunity to save the season, and he took it. “To be saved?” he told reporters at the fall owners meetings in Atlanta. “We’re going to kick… you can fill in the word.” Johnson approved of general manager Joe Douglas’ pursuit of Adams, even though the Jets will have to pay the remainder of the receiver’s salary this season, a hefty $11.59 million. (According to reports, the Jets have restructured Adams’ deal to lower the cap in 2024, but he will likely still get paid that money through a signing bonus.)

“The status quo,” Johnson said, “is killing us.”

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Jets trade for Davante Adams and reunite star WR with Aaron Rodgers

The Jets traded a conditional third-round pick to the Raiders, who will only turn into a second pick if Adams — who has already missed three games with a hamstring injury — is an All-Pro, or if he is active for an AFC Championship game or the Superbowl.

Adams is undoubtedly a stud. Some in the Jets building — even those not named Aaron Rodgers or Nathaniel Hackett — believe Adams’ ceiling, even at 31, is the best wide receiver in the NFL. They already have Garrett Wilson, a rising star, and Allen Lazard, Adams’ old Packers teammate who scored five touchdowns in six games.

At the end of Monday night’s loss, Rodgers threw an interception on a pass intended for wide receiver Mike Williams, a player the Jets gave a one-year deal worth “up to” $15 million with various incentives, hoping that he would provide a spark. as the No. 2 wide receiver after so many receivers failed to back up Wilson in 2022 and ’23. That didn’t exactly work out. Williams, coming off a torn ACL in 2023, has 10 catches for 145 yards in six games. And after the Bills loss, Rodgers pointed a finger at Williams, pointing out that the receiver took the wrong route on the interception.

“If I’ve made mistakes, ‘I’ve got to play better, make that throw,’ that’s the norm for everyone,” Rodgers said during his appearance Tuesday on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “There were a lot of mistakes made all night, but if you just look at that play, those were the questions. “What happened during that play?” Well, it was two vertical lines on the right side. Mike needed to get to the red line, which would have been a big win, so I didn’t call Mike out on anything other than his responsibility in the details of that game. I have a lot of love and respect for Mike; He did some nice things for us, but he wasn’t in the right place in that part. You can make more of that if you want, but we all have to live up to a standard. I hold myself to a standard of greatness, and at times it hasn’t been there.

Many expect Williams to be on the move now that Adams has arrived — and it’s hard not to wonder if Rodgers and Williams’ struggle to connect ultimately led to this deal for Adams. The idea is that Rodgers and Adams won’t have the same problems building chemistry.

That Adams — who has five 1,000-yard seasons and 997 yards in the other — can help solve whatever ails the Jets is a tall order. He can’t fix left tackle Tyron Smith (five sacks allowed this season) or the leaky run defense. But maybe he can help in the red zone, and he can help create some space for Wilson, who has struggled to start the season against No. 1 cornerbacks, to operate.

Ulbrich compared the potential of the Wilson-Adams combination to what he saw as a linebacker for the 49ers when San Francisco brought in a young Terrell Owens to compliment an older Jerry Rice — and learn from him.

“I think Davante is going to provide the same for Garrett and for all of our receivers,” Ulbrich said. “He’s done this at an elite level for a long time, and on top of that you’ll see exactly the reflection of a relationship with Aaron, the synergy that they’ve had for so long. So it’s an exciting time to be a jet.”

That excitement could quickly fade if the Jets lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night. If 2-4 is a tough hill to climb, bouncing back from 2-5 to make the playoffs can feel like Mount Everest. No team has made the playoffs with fewer than nine wins since the NFL added an additional wild-card spot in 2020; the Jets will need to win at least 7 of their last 11 games to get to 9-8. The ambitions were much higher when the season started.

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But the Jets have a 40-year-old quarterback on his last legs and an impatient owner. They also have a fan base who are tired of small losses and falling short year after year. The time to win is now, even if expectations have been recalibrated after a disappointing three-match losing streak that resulted in multiple casualties, from Saleh (sacked) to Hackett (demoted).

The Adams trade was a win-now move for a team still figuring out how to win. Maybe the trade will give the Jets a boost. Or maybe it’s a blip on the radar, a fleeting moment

“Thinking is overrated,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “You have to look ahead. We have to look forward to the games we will play every week and try to win them all. And those are basic things, right? … A lot of times you just have to go with your instincts and what’s best to build a team, build a winning team and most importantly build a culture of winning? I think based on what I saw (Monday night), I think we’re going in a new and exciting direction.”

(Top photo: Brad Penner / Imagn Images)