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Perhaps it’s a misconception . . .
There is a theory out there, partly espoused by Jamal Adams camp, that Joe Douglas didn’t communicate with them very well this off-season, and that greatly damaged the relationship between the team and player.
Here is a question that Douglas was asked by a reporter on Monday during his press briefing:
“At the end of last year, you said communication was something you wanted to work on and Jamal, obviously, you guys weren’t on the same page with the negotiations. So how do you feel your communication was in the negotiations and as a team where do you guys think you are with that issue. Jamal isn’t the first player you had some disagreements with.”
Clearly the other the player the reporter was referring to was guard Kelechi Osemele, who battled with Douglas over his shoulder injury last year, and was eventually released.
Douglas felt he could play with the injury, and Osemele disagreed and opted for surgery on his own, without team approval. One reason the Raiders traded Osemele to the Jets early in the 2019 off-season, before Douglas took over, was they felt he wouldn’t play hurt in 2018.
Osemele filed a grievance against the Jets. Not sure how that turned out, but he might have dropped it since he got paid. A source close to the Jets told me that some of Osemele’s teammates were prepared to testify AGAINST him.
So clearly some people think this was an example of Douglas not communicating well with a player. Not sure if that was the case. It was more just a disagreement over the severity of an injury.
And now you have some saying that same thing happened with Adams. With Adams, it’s probably inaccurate. Adams claimed, through a surrogate in the media, that Douglas promised to make him a contract offer during the off-season.
Douglas categorically denied that yesterday.
“Before I move on to some other points, I just want to make it clear that I never promised an offer to Jamal or his agent,” Douglas said. “Nor was I ever dishonest or ambiguous in any cases with their camp.”
In other words, Douglas feels Adams wasn’t telling the truth. But one thing in defense of Adams. It’s only fair to assume his agent told him Douglas said he would make an offer, and Adams went with what his agent said.
“I feel like in most cases, players rely on their agent to handle any talks about his future, and that is how we handled it with Jamal and his representative, and I feel like our communication was very clear from the very beginning,” Douglas said.
On other words, Douglas is telling us he never told Adams agent that he was going to make the player an offer, but Adams agent told the player that he was.
As for Adams trashing Douglas, Gase and ownership in the media and on social media, Douglas understands exactly what was going on there.
“Obviously there was a reason those things were said,” Douglas said. “I don’t take those things personally. You kind of understand why those things were said.”
It’s called shooting your way out of the building. Douglas knows what Adams was doing.
But to me, shooting your way out of the building is when a player insults the brass, and then is traded for pennies on the dollar, like Darius Slay or Trent Williams. That’s just bad business for a team to trade a good player, for a lousy offer in return, just to get him out of the building.
When you get two first-round picks, a third-round pick and a starting safety, for a safety who primarily plays in the box, that is grand theft auto, and whether you think Adams shot himself of the building is kind of irrelevant.
July 28, 2020
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