If you haven’t heard by now, Adam Jones, who is also known by “Pacman” around the league, has been talking about a lot of things. He has complained about the officiating, not unjustified except the way he went about it, about Antonio Brown faking his injury after Vontaze Burfict‘s hit, and now he has said he will only apologize if Brown doesn’t play this week, wait WHAT!!!
Adam Jones just finished a contract year and will hit free agency, if the Bengals don’t complete a deal before the March 15th, when the free agency period begins. Everything he is saying and everything he is doing is hurting his chances of getting possibly his final decent contract of his career.
As I said in my article Top Five Free Agents to Re-sign, Jones is someone that the Bengals should pursue and with some urgency. His value to this team was high when he was on the field for this defense. When his head is on straight, his leadership ability is very valuable to young players like Dre Kirkpatrick and Darqueze Dennard, as they try to improve their skills on the field.
The current issue however is that everything he is saying, his actions in the media and on social media, could be construed as a distraction moving forward. Luckily for this Bengals team, they are in the offseason and the only distraction this is causing is in possibly negotiating a deal with Jones.
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Now, if they would have won, I am not sure he is doing this but the “what if’s” behind his actions are what teams are looking at when deciding who to pursue. Adam Jones is talented and the Bengals are fortunate that they have the first shot at a top free agent, but as every team will consider, they must look at his downside with the upside, and adjust their offer accordingly.
If Adam Jones is looking for that payday, he needs to focus his passion and determination for football on the field and put his team before his actions. If he fades into the offseason from here on out, most teams, including the Bengals, will forget what happened and move forward. If he stays in the negative spotlight, he is only hurting himself.