Jamal Adams has hit the ground running with the Jets, and maybe that's because he's feeling right at home, seeing one former LSU player after another on the NFL field of battle.
Last week it was the Dolphins' Jarvis Landry, whom he never played with but came in right after to play with the Bayou Bengals. This week Adams and the Jets defense get to quite literally run into rookie RB Leonard Fournette and the Jaguars at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
"Leonard who? ... That name sounds familiar ... I met him in the draft process... he has a ton of talent, from what I hear," Adams bantered with reporters after today's practice at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center.
"As you know, he's a great back. He's also a great person off the field, a very close friend of mine. We've definitely got to stop him. He's that guy that can give a lot of problems to the defense, so we've got to come out on our P's and Q's and focus on stopping him."
Fournette is off to a non-rookie start as the Jaguars' fourth overall pick of the April draft. The 6'0", 240-pounder has already made an impact against the Texans, Titans and Ravens to the tune of 199 yards and three touchdowns on 57 carries plus 66 yards on eight receptions.
But Adams has come out firing, too, and maybe it has to do with more than meeting up with former teammates and college alums.
The Jets' sixth pick of the draft has already demonstrated his own skills, most recently on back-to-back second-quarter plays in the win over Miami. He ranged downfield to swat away a Jay Cutler longball targeted for DeVante Parker, then on the next play blitzing off the edge and taking down Cutler for a 10-yard sack. No Jets DB in at least the last dozen seasons has recorded a PD and a sack on consecutive plays.
"The D-line caused that [sack] for me, them pushing the pocket, and me coming off, making the play, that was all on them," he said. "Me on the back end? Just doing my job, covering up everything in the back end, as well as Marcus [Maye] doing the same thing. We're just making plays, trying to fly around."
Adams may fly some more against the Jags, but he knows he's also sure to collide with Fournette a few times. And he's eager to renew acquaintances.
"We're definitely going to meet in the hole. It's just football is going to happen," he said. "We don't try to get caught up in all that. We understand what the opportunity is."
Who won more of those hole meetings during LSU summer camps, he was asked. "It was a tie," he said without missing a beat.
And will Sunday then be a tiebreaker?
"I don't know, man. We'll definitely see," Adams said. "It's going to be fun."
