The Browns should hold off on trading for Jamal Adams at the current price

Jamal Adams might just be the best safety in football under the age of 25 but at the current asking price the Cleveland Browns would be best to pass.

The New York Jets have bungled their relationship with safety Jamal Adams so badly that he wants out of town. The asking price for him has been assumed/guessed/estimated to be around a first and a third. Yet it’s rarely that high, just look at Deandre Hopkins and Trent Williams. A lot of trades actually are rarely ever that high. The rare times they are it seems that the deal was lopsided against the team acquiring the player. So no, the Cleveland Browns should avoid trading for Adams at this moment if a first-round pick is on the line.

That’s not to say that you should ignore Adams if the offer comes out and it’s not for a first-rounder. Even though the team drafted a second-round safety and acquired one of head coach Kevin Stefanski’s favorite players in Andrew Sendejo, that doesn’t mean that a player like Adams wouldn’t be a huge upgrade. Especially considering new signing Karl Joseph has never lived up to his potential and has been injured for a big chunk of his career.

Adams would make an instant impact in this defense, yet and here lies the problem, he’s only got two years left on his deal and no indication he’d stay in Cleveland long term. To give up a first, I’d want to see a three-year extension. If the Jets were to sign-and-trade him with a new five-year deal, then yes, pull that first-round trigger and land him.

If he doesn’t extend his deal, however, then don’t risk a valuable commodity to get a rental. The Browns shouldn’t be investing big money and draft capital in players who aren’t sticking around long term. The Browns could certainly use him, which team wouldn’t? It’s just not prudent to give up so much in the way of draft picks to land a guy who’s not committed long term. The last thing the team should be doing is figuring out how to replace a then-26-year-old safety in just two years’ time.

They’d be back to where they were before, but only with less young players to work with. Get a contract extension in place, then talk first-rounders. Yet if you can get him for a collection of third and fourth-round picks like Hopkins and Williams, then pull that trigger a thousand times over. Even if only for two years, he’s certainly a better option on paper than a 2021 mid-round selection.