Jamal Adams may be holding out of voluntary offseason virtual meetings, but the Jets are exercising the All-Pro safety's fifth-year option, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News.
The decision was not an unexpected one, which had to be made ahead of next Monday's deadline.
Source: Jets are exercising Jamal Adams' fifth-year option.Story: https://t.co/RnnPGF8OMe pic.twitter.com/Nhku67h6hl
— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) April 27, 2020By exercising his option, the Jets would pay Adams $9.86 million in 2021, before his rookie contract expires.
However, Adams is hoping to avoid the latter. The 24-year-old has made it clear that he wants a contract extension and to be among the highest-paid safeties in the league.
Because of this, Adams' name had surfaced in trade rumors leading up to the NFL Draft, but Jets general manager Joe Douglas dismissed that notion and reiterated that he wants to keep Adams as a Jet for life.
"My stance on Jamal hasn't changed," he told reporters after the draft. "At some point, we're going to get together with him and his representatives."
While the status of when team workouts in-person can resume in the NFL remains uncertain, Adams likely will not return until things become mandatory, which does not seem to bother head coach Adam Gase.
"This is voluntary," Gase told reporters on Monday. "That's just what it is. It's one of those things where guys have a choice. If they want to be here, they can. If they don't it's just what it is. That's the CBA rules and there's nothing that we can really do about that."
