Jordyn Adams is a multi-sport star. In football, he was one of the highest-rated wide receivers in the class of 2018. In baseball, he was one of the country’s best prep outfielders. And on the basketball court, he’s capable of putting dudes on posters with vicious dunks:
UNC’s losing a super athletic, 4-star WR to the Los Angeles Angels
Jordyn Adams is really good at a lot of sports, and now he’ll be making money at one of them.
In December, Adams signed with North Carolina, where his dad, Deke, is the Tar Heels’ defensive line coach. He was slated to be an important player there as a freshman.
At UNC, Adams was also in line to play outfield for the baseball team, drawing significant attention from major league teams.
In ESPN analyst Keith Law’s mock draft, he had Adams 15th overall to the Rangers:
Adams has top-10 tools — but limited baseball experience, because he has been a football player as well, which might lead to him going somewhere in the teens instead of up top. (I haven’t heard him linked with the Padres, but he does seem like their kind of player.) The Rangers have been linked to prep players, and they’re the stopping point for a few names who might slip, such as Stewart or Kelenic.
He was picked at 17th, and he had a big decision. His announcement:
The assigned slot value for the 17th overall pick is more than $3.4 million. It’s not unheard of for major league teams to sign multi-sport athletes and let them play the other sport for some time, but that’s not likely for someone picked so high in the draft.
“Me and my parents kind of expected it to get kind of crazy, but we didn’t expect it to get this crazy,” Adams told the Raleigh News & Observer in April. “Everyone has been blowing up my parents’ phone, emailing them and stuff like that.”
Adams isn’t the only football star in this draft.
Oklahoma quarterback and outfielder Kyler Murray was taken ninth, though it was thought that he would slide amid a sense that he’s going to play football in 2018. The A’s took a chance on Murray, and he’s slotted to make more than $4 million.
Adams is farther away from a potential pro football career, but he’s a better NFL prospect than Murray is.
Now that Adams has signed, he can’t go into the MLB Draft again for another couple of years.
A lot can go into a baseball-or-football call for a two-sport star.
A few of the potential considerations:
- Earnings potential in either sport
- Health; football’s a lot more physical
- How much a player likes being in college
But all of that can fall short of a simple thing: Which sport does he like more?
Former Oklahoma State quarterback and infielder Josh Fields left the Cowboys after his junior football season in 2003 and signed with the White Sox as a first-round pick.
“I know that it kind of probably seems stereotypical of a quote to say,” Fields told SB Nation in a discussion about Murray’s decision. “It really did kind of come down to my first love and stuff like that. It really did, ‘cause all those other factors, you can get over.”
Adams’ exit is a big loss for Larry Fedora’s football team.
Adams was the No. 8 receiver in his class, according to the industry-consensus 247Sports Composite. I think he’s better than that, though, and would rank him in the top four.
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