Does Jets’ Trade of Jamal Adams Mean Ashtyn Davis Becomes a Starter?
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The big national story on Saturday was that New York Jets All-Pro safety Jamal Adams was traded to the Seattle Seahawks for a package that includes first-round draft picks the next two years and safety Bradley McDougald.
But the conclusion Cal fans might draw from this transaction is that former Cal safety Ashtyn Davis may step into a starting role as a rookie.
However, that’s unlikely as McDougald, who started 14 games for the Seahawks last season and has made 75 career NFL starts, is the one likely to start alongside the Jets’ other safety, Marcus Maye.
But Jets officials have been effusive in their praise of Davis every since they took him in the third round of this year’s draft.
Listen to what the Jets reporters said about the safety situation in this video on the Jets website.
After talking about Adams and Maye in that video, Jets team reported Eric Allen adds, “and then you add Ashtyn Davis to the mix, a player who was all over the field at California, highly athletic, very fast, rangy, had seven interceptions, 19 PDs [passes defensed] over the course of his career with the Golden Bears, and he has the versatility to play big nickel at times.”
A July 17 story on the Jets website talked about the team’s three key players in the deep middle, and those three were Adams, Maye and Davis.
It is noteworthy that the trade of Adams came less than two days after Davis signed his rookie contract with the Jets. It suggests the Jets may have wanted to ensure that Davis was in the fold before pulling the trigger on the Adams trade.
When the Jets camp opens on Tuesday, we can assume that McDougald will be working with the first-team defense. But Davis may be close behind.
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