Tony Adams: Pressure is for the Unprepared

When the New York Jets take the field against the Buffalo Bills on 9/11, Tony Adams will be starting at free safety. The roster has been upgraded on both sides of the ball, and those moves have been well-documented. It is impressive when a 2nd-year undrafted free agent comes in, earns rave reviews, and wins the starting free safety job. The 5’11, 205lb Adams played at Illinois and signed with the team in April of 2022. His ascension has been fast, and the Jets coaching staff seemed to put him in bubble wrap early on in camp, along with the other starters. He is getting national attention now, as he made Peter Schrager’s break out player list for this upcoming season.

Robert Saleh had some high praise for Adams.

You felt it last year with his mindset and the way he approached things, and then this year, when Chuck (Clark) went down, he really went to another level, obviously with training camp. Had a lot of excitement going into training camp for him, thought it would be good to see him compete, and he competed. He’s earned that job, and now it’s just a matter of him just calming his world down and taking it one day at a time and enjoying it.

We felt coming out of training camp last year, if we lost Tony, we’d all be sick. That’s the honest to goodness truth. So, you saw throughout all the practice habits, it’s just the way he approaches the game, and then obviously you get an opportunity late in the season, Seattle a little bit, Miami, and then just the way he attacked this offseason, going into OTAs and all that, just thought we as an organization made a good decision to keep him.

Tony Adams said it best himself, pressure is only for those who are unprepared. That video was recorded on August 8th, it sounds like Tony Adams is prepared.