When you’re sitting at 2-4 with a win-now mentality, the season hasn’t started as well as you expected. You can either sit on your hands and do nothing, or make a move to shift the momentum.

This week, Joe Douglas went out and made a move that reverberated around every front office in the NFL, sending a conditional third round pick to the Las Vegas Raiders for star wide receiver Davante Adams, reuniting him with long-time friend and teammate Aaron Rodgers. 

The two formed one of the best partnerships in football over eight years in Green Bay, and while they have been apart since Adams made the move to Las Vegas before the 2022 season, the hope for the Jets is they can pick up right where they left off. 

The addition of Adams gives the Jets one of the most formidable receiving duos in football and his veteran experience can only be a good thing for Garrett Wilson. 

Since coming into the league in 2021, Wilson has been double-covered on 88 targets which is the fourth highest mark in football. Davante Adams has been doubled on 77 targets over that same timeframe, which is the seventh highest mark in football. Defences will have to pick their poison, they simply can’t double both. Especially with Allen Lazard lurking, the same Lazard who currently shares the league lead in receiving touchdowns with 5. 

The kind of chemistry that Lazard and Rodgers have takes time and we’re starting to see some real chemistry develop between the Jets QB and Wilson, but the Adams/Rodgers connection is on another level. That’s what happens when you play over 100 games together. 

Over the course of those 108 games played, Adams became the star receiver we see today. 622 catches, 7,590 yards and 69 touchdowns. He had four 1,000+ yard seasons and five seasons with double-digit touchdown totals. The Jets are hoping that he can bring a little of that magic to turn around a season that’s still extremely young. 

What Adams brings outside of his chemistry with Rodgers is the ability to get open. ESPN tracks wide receiver open rates and in Aaron Rodgers’ 2020 MVP season, Adams received a perfect 99 open rate score, which probably explains why he hit 18 touchdowns while only playing 14 games. In 2021, Rodgers won another MVP award, with Adams again earning an elite open rate score of 85 on his way to a 1500+ receiving yard season and 11 touchdowns. 

Just to prove that he wasn’t totally reliant on the QB, Adams moved to Las Vegas to play with his former college QB Derek Carr in 2022 and put up another elite open rate score of 81 on the way to a 1500+ yard season and 14 touchdowns. Put simply: when he plays, he’s elite. 

According to PFF, Adams was targeted on no fewer than 19.5% of his routes in seasons where Rodgers started and finished the year with Adams as his WR1. In three of those seasons he finished with a target share of 29.5%. I’m not sure it’s going to be as high as 30% with the Jets when you consider we have Wilson, but it’s very clear that Rodgers trusts Adams and that’s been earned over years of production. 

If Adams is targeted on 20% of his routes run, that means there are plenty of targets to go around and with Adams drawing more attention from defensive coordinators, Wilson will see more isolated single coverage, which is great for the Jets, great for Rodgers and great for Wilson.

Adams has only managed to play in three games this season while dealing with a nagging hamstring injury, but he said he felt great in an appearance on the Pat McAfee show on Tuesday afternoon and practiced on Wednesday and Thursday before confirming to reporters he felt ready:

“Definitely, I’ll be ready to roll. I’m feeling good right now… felt good running around”

Coach Jeff Ulbrich stopped short of promising that Adams would make his debut for the Jets in Pittsburgh on Sunday Night, but by the sounds of it… he’s good to go.