JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The New York Jets’ team plane was delayed flying out of New Jersey on Saturday due to mechanical issues. The team eventually took off, two hours late, on an entirely new plane. Eventually, they landed the plane.
That sounds … familiar.
It sounds like the Jets offense in 2024, a year full of missed opportunities and disappointments with some flashes of what could’ve been — or should’ve been — mixed in. That’s what it felt like for this team on Sunday. Sure, things were bad in the beginning. The Jaguars went up 13-7 at halftime, Davante Adams had one drop and zero catches and the Jets defense continued its tumble into mediocrity, offering little resistance as Mac Jones led Jacksonville on long, methodical drives.
And then Adams woke up, and the Jets came alive. They scored 25 second-half points. Aaron Rodgers had the ball late in the fourth quarter with a chance to win — and, finally, he did. The defense got a stop on the final possession, which they’ve failed to do too many times this season. The Jets won 32-25, their first game scoring more than 30 this season. Any playoff hopes officially ended a week ago and they are still only 4-10, with more challenging games coming.
“Too little, too late,” Rodgers said. “But it’s still special.”
CLUTCH.#ProBowlVote | @iamSauceGardner pic.twitter.com/NwsGrLAYNj
— New York Jets (@nyjets) December 15, 2024
Sunday’s win was far from perfect, particularly considering the opponent, a three-win Jaguars team coming in with mediocre quarterback play, one of the NFL’s worst defenses and a coaching staff expected to be let go at the end of the season. But the Jets still celebrated afterward because these wins, even against bad teams, have been few and far between, and much harder to come by than they ever should have been. Most of the Jets’ losses this season have been close ones. This time, they won a close one.
For Adams, there was plenty to celebrate — and he earned it. The move to trade for Adams in October hasn’t worked out in terms of wins, but he’s become an integral piece of an offense that’s gotten much better. It took time, but Adams and Rodgers finally seem like they’re on the same page, rekindling the flame that burned bright when they played together for so many years in Green Bay. Adams has shown over his short tenure with the Jets (eight games) why Rodgers holds him in such high regard, and why the Jets should do whatever they can to convince him to stick around in 2025.
In Adams’ first two games as a Jet, he only managed seven catches for 84 yards in brutal losses to the Steelers and Patriots. He was stellar in a Halloween night win over the Texans — seven catches on 11 targets for 91 yards and a touchdown — and then irrelevant against the Cardinals in a blowout loss a week later. Over the last four games he’d started to get into a groove, especially last week against the Dolphins: nine catches, 11 targets, 109 yards, one touchdown.
Sunday turned into a vintage performance for Adams, though it didn’t start that way. He had one target in the first quarter (incomplete). He had another in the second quarter (Rodgers hit him in stride, but it hit Adams in the hands, then the chest, and then he dropped it).
“He dropped that one, said he got his dreads pulled. Whether that’s true or not, seemed like an excuse,” Rodgers said, smiling.
On the next play, Rodgers threw to Wilson, too far inside, and it fell incomplete. Adams was open elsewhere. Adams “was wide-open and came back and said, ‘What, you don’t trust me anymore?’ with, like, a wry smile,” Rodgers said. “So I was using that line against him a bunch of times in the second half.”
In the second half, Adams took off. He opened with a 12-yard reception to start the third quarter. He didn’t get the ball again until the 5:53 mark of the quarter, when Rodgers hit him on a slant to the middle of the field and Adams juked a defender and gained 43 yards. Two plays later (after a defensive pass interference), Adams nearly bowled his way over multiple defenders and into the end zone but was called short. Rodgers has admitted it’s a quarterbacking sin to pre-determine who you’re going to throw the ball to, but everyone in the Jets huddle knew where this was going. Rodgers knew what a touchdown would mean for Adams.
It would mean 100.
Adams didn’t know if Rodgers would throw it to him — but he knew.
“No, but I know,” Adams said. “You know certain plays just based off the look … there was no doubt in my mind, in that moment, he was coming there. It’s just kind of that telepathy, I guess you could say.”
Adams was alone on the right side, facing single coverage. Rodgers snapped the ball and immediately threw it up for Adams, perfectly placed for the receiver to haul it in and drag his feet for a one-yard touchdown — the 100th of his career. It put the Jets up 17-16.
“Oh, that was his 100th?” Rodgers said, smiling. “We all knew it was his 100th.”
Adams was quiet again until late in the fourth quarter, when the Jets needed him most. Rodgers got the ball with 4:19 remaining, the Jets trailing 22-17 — but a chance to take the lead, something they’d failed to do many times this season, was derailed early by mistakes. Rodgers’ first pass went to Adams, complete for four yards. His second went to tight end Jeremy Ruckert, complete for 12 yards. His third throw targeted Ruckert too, but was incomplete. On the next play, Adams ran straight up the right seam, got behind two Jaguars defenders and Rodgers hit him in stride. He took it the rest of the way, falling into the end zone for a 71-yard score. He caught the two-point conversion too.
“Football is crazy man,” Adams said. “It’s about making plays at the right time. And sometimes it’s just this big difference — the ball being here or your hands being there, we’ve had opportunities to make teams pay the way we did today, but being able to execute, that’s the hard part. Today we did that.”
Then, the Jets needed him again. The defense allowed Jones and the Jaguars offense to drive for a game-tying field goal. Rodgers got the ball back again with 1:51 remaining and his first pass — for Ruckert, again — fell incomplete. His second one, for Garrett Wilson, fell incomplete too.
On third-and-10, Rodgers snapped the ball, took a few steps back, and waited — the offensive line, solid all afternoon, gave him time — and then lobbed it up for Adams toward the sideline, one-on-one with Jaguars cornerback Tyson Campbell. Adams, somehow, hauled it in, inbounds, for a 23-yard gain.
“Once you get in a groove, sometimes it’s like that ball — your hand is like a magnet to the ball,” Adams said. “That third down he throws it up here and I see it for one quick second and catch it on the side of the head, that’s the kind of stuff you have to be in a groove for. And thank God I made a couple plays before that to be able to pull one like that in.”
Adams’ last play sealed the game.
After an incompletion and a 5-yard Rodgers scramble, the Jets quarterback moved to evade some pass rushers, and then somehow found a way to fire it off across his body to Adams, wide open, on the opposite side of the field. Adams took it and ran — and in his head, he couldn’t figure out if he wanted to score or get tackled inbounds to kill the clock and make it harder for the Jaguars to turn around and score themselves. Last week, he got forced out of bounds in a crucial moment, which hurt them.
This time, he ran 41 yards and got tackled at the 1-yard-line. Running back Breece Hall punched it in on the next play.
“It was a good day,” Adams said. “I just wish we could’ve had a little more success in the first half to not just make it so close, but it’s all about finishing it out, which we haven’t done enough of this year.”
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The Jaguars had time, but Sauce Gardner intercepted Jones to end the game — his first interception since 2022, his rookie season. The Jets also had an interception earlier in the game (safety Jalen Mills), their first two picks since Week 5, and only the team’s third and fourth interceptions of the season.
But that wasn’t what won the game for the Jets. Adams did.
“Historic, magical,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “To get his 100th touchdown today was just, I feel honored to have seen it and to have been here for it. It was an amazing moment for those two guys (Adams and Rodgers) … So, for them to get that was special.”
Said Adams: “Today was one of those days in the second half, it definitely felt very similar to the way we used to get it rolling. Being in the huddle with Aaron — it felt (like it used to). Obviously with him being mobile now and not having that (hamstring) nagging on him like when I first got here. Him being able to be on the run like that I think teams are starting to play us how they were when he wasn’t — and he’ll make you pay.”
Rodgers only completed 16 of 30 passes but still threw for 289 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions — powered, mostly, by his closest friend. The quarterback’s future in New York remains uncertain, even as he plays better to close out the season, and Adams’ future with the Jets is probably tied to his favorite quarterback. But whatever should play out with Rodgers, the Jets — with a new head coach and general manager — should effort to bring Adams back in 2025. He’s under contract for 2025 at a $38.3 million cap hit, though cutting or trading him would clear most of it off the cap. They can restructure his contract — but it will take some convincing, especially if Rodgers doesn’t return.
Rest assured: Adams’ teammates would like to see him come back.
“It’s great to have him on the team and for him to be able to lead the way he leads,” Gardner said. “It’s truly a blessing to be able to have him, man. I play corner but I learn so much from him. I learn so much from him not even just as a person but the way he goes about his business on the field.”
Said Ulbrich: “For a guy to come in when he did (via trade), without real time on task with this locker room and to have the impact he’s had, I’ve never seen it, ever. He’s a consummate pro. He’s a force multiplier. He just elevates those around him. He’s an historical player in this league, and we’re fortunate to have him. It’s not just the talent. It’s his process. It’s his professionalism. It’s all that. He’s had a tremendous impact on these young guys.”
In a season full of losses, adding Adams turned out to be a win.
(Top photo: Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)
