Davante Adams gave speech to Jets about ‘lack of energy’ after loss to Steelers

National Football League

Updated Oct. 23, 2024 6:54 p.m. ET

Davante Adams saw enough issues in one game with the New York Jets to feel the urge to speak up.

Shortly after a 37-15 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night left the Jets frustrated and disheartened, the recently acquired wide receiver stood in the middle of the locker room and spoke from his heart.

“It’s not really my personality to see something that’s not right and to just let it go on, regardless of whether it’s from the coaches, players, management, support staff, whoever,” Adams said Wednesday. “There was a lack of energy and urgency out there. And it was apparent, especially coming from, you know, I’ve played on teams that have that winning culture.

“And just basically, I just took a moment to let them know.”

He didn’t scream and yell — “but it wasn’t quiet,” Adams said — after the struggling Jets lost their fourth straight to drop to 2-5.

“I thought it was the realest speech I’d ever heard in a locker room in 20 years,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said.

Adams, traded from Las Vegas to New York on Oct. 15, was only with the Jets for five days and felt a little uncertain about speaking up too soon and how it would be received from the players, most of whom he barely knew.

“I’ve got to do whatever I’ve got to do to help this team move forward,” Adams said. “And lacking energy, I mean, that’s a prerequisite to be able to go out there and have a good year or have a good play or whatever it is. So in my mind, it was something that I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I didn’t speak up on it.”

And to a man, the impromptu speech by Adams, who had three catches for 30 yards and hustled to make a touchdown-saving tackle on an interception in his Jets debut, was well-received by the entire team.

“I thought it was spot on, was amazing,” interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “For a guy to just show up to have the feel of the heartbeat of our locker room and to speak on it was — he’s making us better in so many ways. And it’s not just the stuff between the white lines.”

Rodgers said after the game he thought the team’s energy was flat before the game and at halftime, and Adams agreed with that assessment.

“I don’t care if it got to be fake, you’ve got to bring some juice,” Adams said.

Adams, who played eight seasons with Rodgers in Green Bay before being traded to Las Vegas in 2022, said he noticed his teammates not celebrating each other after big plays or supporting them on the sideline. He pointed out Breece Hall’s 57-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter and the Jets were unable to feed off the energy of the moment.

“Those plays are supposed to be contagious for the rest of the team,” Adams said.

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The three-time All-Pro insisted he didn’t come to the Jets to be a savior, but acknowledged that all eyes were on them Sunday night — including Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in attendance.

“Everybody was looking, you know, the whole world,” Adams said. “Trump was at the game. I don’t know if that’s because of me or not, but I mean, everybody’s sitting there expecting it to be me going out there and put up 200 yards and three (touchdowns). That’s a storybook ending to it and obviously that would have been amazing if that happened.

“But I’m here to help shift this culture more than anything.”

Adams comes to New York after having played for franchises that have a combined seven Super Bowl titles — four for the Packers and three for the Raiders. The Jets have not made the playoffs in a franchise-record 13 straight seasons and haven’t played in a Super Bowl since Joe Namath delivered the team its only Lombardi Trophy to cap the 1968 season.

“I’m not going to call any organization that I’m a part of a losing organization,” Adams said. “But obviously there’s been some of that in the past, in recent years around here. And it’s a little bit of everything. Obviously personnel, but I would say with this team, it’s more just learning how to win and what it takes, the small things that necessarily don’t have to come from the owner or the general manager. This is something that you can solve within the team if you’ve got the right people in here, guys that know how to win.

“And it’s not just about having good players because we have that. You’ve got to have guys that understand and have been on teams that have won sometimes. And that’s a big reason why I’m here.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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New York Jets

Aaron Rodgers

Davante Adams