As much of the speculation surrounding the New York Jets' 2025 season has centered around Aaron Rodgers' future, wide receiver Davante Adams made sure to keep his options open, too, just in case.
Adams has been clear that he wants to play with his good buddy Rodgers, and if the quarterback is back in New York next season, it makes sense for them to play together. But Adams also kept his leverage to decide his future.
When his eventual trade to the Jets was hanging in the balance, sources say Adams and his camp were adamant that his contract years for 2025 and 2026 remained untouched. The 2024 year was restructured for salary cap reasons, but the final two years of the five-year, $141.25 million contract he signed with the Raiders were left alone.
While not a big deal at the time, that decision gave Adams the leverage to decide his own fate after this season. If Rodgers isn't brought back (or he decides to retire), Adams will get to decide his future.
Here is why: Adams is on the books for $35.64 million for each year in 2025 and 2026. The Jets will never pay him that kind of money at age 33 and 34. All sides know those numbers will have to be redone. If Adams wants out, he can simply decline any offers to redo the deal and wait until they release him before free agency begins on March 12 (rather than carry that number into the new league year).
Adams controls his own path. Obviously, the Jets would have preferred to have worked out an entirely redone contract with Adams, allowing him to stay for 2025 with no issues or making his contract tradable if it didn't work out.
Adams was asked this week about his future and was noncommittal, saying, "I truly don't have the answer to it right now."
"I would love to be a part of this football team," Adams on Wednesday. "... I'd love to go to war with these guys, but it's a business and there are a lot of pieces, contractually, and, obviously, with Aaron's future -- a lot of things that I can't control."
Sources have said Rodgers and the offense in general need to improve for the former MVP to stick around. Adams alluded to as much, saying, "Hopefully, we do enough to where everybody's feeling like it's the right thing to do for us to stay here."
