Jamal Adams has made the pitch before, and he’s not letting up now. The former Jets All-Pro has spent two straight offseasons signaling that he’d be open to coming back to Florham Park, and this week he doubled down in an Instagram exchange with a fan.
Adams said he has already apologized for the way his exit from the organization was handled, and he added that he has tried to make a return happen, though the final call belongs to the Jets.
For plenty of fans, that’s not exactly an easy sell. Adams forced his way out in 2020, took aim at the organization and the fan base on his way out, and then saw injuries knock his career off the Hall of Fame track it once seemed to be on.
Still, the football case is there. Adams isn’t trying to walk back in as the player who made three straight Pro Bowls in green and white. He’s asking for another shot after remaking himself in Las Vegas, where he played linebacker last season.
And given the Jets’ situation behind Demario Davis and Jamien Sherwood, it’s at least a conversation worth having.
Adams quietly turned in one of his better seasons in years with the Raiders. After appearing in only one game in 2022 because of a torn quad and playing just nine games in 2023, he finally got through a full season in 2025.
He played in all 17 games, started four, and spent the year exclusively at linebacker for the first time in his career after brief stops with the Titans and Lions in 2024. That short stay in Detroit also gave him a chance to work under current Jets head coach Aaron Glenn.
The production was solid. Adams posted a 67.3 Pro Football Focus defensive grade and a 69.2 coverage grade, both his best numbers since his final Jets season in 2019.
He also flashed as a pass rusher, recording seven pressures on just 35 pass-rush snaps. That kind of disruption is still part of his value, and it’s the same trait that once made him one of the league’s most unusual defensive weapons. He still owns the single-season DB sack record with 9.5 in 2020.
The concern, as always, is tackling. Adams finished with a 36.5 PFF tackling grade last season and missed 21.4 percent of his tackle attempts in 2025. He also missed 25.0 percent of his attempts in 2024 and 24.2 percent in 2023.
So no, he’s not a clean fit or a perfect linebacker. But he did help the Raiders, and there’s reason to think he could help the Jets in a similar role.
The depth chart behind the starters is thin. Davis and Sherwood are set to open training camp as the top two linebackers, while Mykal Walker, Kiko Mauigoa, and Marcelino McCrary-Ball make up the rest of the group.
Walker held up well late last season, but he has bounced around the league and began last year on the practice squad. Mauigoa showed some promise but was inconsistent in limited defensive work. McCrary-Ball looks best suited to special teams.
That leaves a path for Adams to come in as the top backup behind Sherwood at weak-side linebacker, with Walker and Mauigoa battling for work behind Davis at MIKE. He wouldn’t need to start.
He wouldn’t need to be the centerpiece. He’d just need to keep doing what he did in Las Vegas.
For some, the emotional pull is obvious. Adams was the face of the franchise for three seasons before it all fell apart. A return would give the story a cleaner ending than the one it got the first time around.
But the real case for the Jets isn’t sentiment. It’s football. And on that front, Jamal Adams could still bring value to this roster in 2026.
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