Through his 11 years in the NFL, Jets wide receiver Davante Adams has encountered and worked with numerous coaches, coordinators and assistants. When he was acquired by the Jets in a trade from Las Vegas on Oct. 15, reuniting with his friend and quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Adams joined a team that had just dismissed its coach and elevated defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich into the big chair.

On Thursday, as the Green & White prepared to travel to Arizona for Sunday's game against the Cardinals, Adams praised the team's new head man.

"I mean, immediately, what I was met with is just like, first of all, a grown man that's not a not afraid of other grown men," Adams said. "And you come in this position, and you were a position coach before. It's easy to just kind of just come in and be the likable guy. But he's not worried about being accepted. He wants to be respected as a head coach, and that's something that I live by."

Though the Jets lost their first three games with Ulbrich at the helm, they bounced back last Thursday night with a win over Houston and now will face a Cardinals team that is hunting its fourth-straight victory and enters the game in first place in the NFC West (5-4).

Adams joined his new team in time to face the Steelers, a game the Jets (3-6) led at halftime, but in which they surrendered 31 unanswered points. He took the liberty to speak to his new teammates after the game, stepping up and speaking out in no uncertain terms that it was his view that the players were lacking in emotion and energy.

"That's just something that I've always wanted to be as a leader, for any team, which is kind of wild the way that I was when I first got here, speaking to the team," Adams said. "So kind of having that same mindset, as far as that, I feel like that's where we connected. And just hearing the way he holds guys accountable, he'll turn around and juice up somebody when they do something, with positive reinforcement.

"So being able to be that type of coach and saying, real, real stuff in team meetings and not afraid to call guys out, and also pat them on their back when they do well, that's how you get the team around you. And it sucks that they haven't been able to, or we haven't been able to win more, but that's hopefully where we're headed to now."

Since he joined the Jets, Adams has 14 catches (7 on 11 targets in the Houston game alone), 175 yards and 1 TD in his three games. The TD catch from Rodgers, the 69th between the two players, iced the win over the Texans and completed Rodgers' trio of TD passes in the second half (two of which were superlative one-handed grabs by Garrett Wilson).

Adams talked about his perception that there's been a change in the energy level in the past few weeks. He even pointed to the reaction last week after rookie WR Malachi Corley prematurely dropped the ball before getting into the end zone on an end around to start the second quarter.

"I think it was more about just the focus of being more celebratory in each other's success and just celebrating each play and being in the moment," Adams said. "Because even since then, even times where we haven't done great right to Malachi, dropped the ball short like you saw the energy was different. Two, three weeks ago, guys would have been quiet, heads down on the sideline, but just after kind of bringing a little bit more attention to it and making them aware, I think that awareness kind of fits them."