- The Las Vegas Raiders are prepared to part ways with disgruntled wide receiver Davante Adams.
- Adams was traded from Green Bay to Las Vegas in March 2022 for a pair of draft picks.
- Adams’ wish list of teams is topped by the New York Jets and the New Orleans, as Adams has personal connections with their quarterbacks.
The situation between the Las Vegas Raiders and wide receiver Davante Adams has reached the boiling point. Various outlets have reported that Adams wants out of Las Vegas, and the Raiders are looking to move on from him as well.
Adams has a wish list of teams he’d like to go to in a trade. At the top of that list are the New York Jets and the New Orleans Saints. It should come as no surprise that Adams is very familiar with the two quarterbacks on those teams.
Adams Looking for Reunions with Rodgers, Carr
ESPN reports that Adams’ wish list is led by the Packers and the Saints, for both personal and professional reasons. We’ll start with the Saints, whose NFC South rivals, the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are playing Thursday Night Football this week. They wouldn’t want the Saints to pull this off.
The 2–2 Saints are off to a flying start offensively, and their 127 points leads the NFL through four games. Saints’ quarterback Derek Carr and Adams played two years together at Fresno State in 2012 and 2013. They also played one year together in Las Vegas, before Carr was traded to New Orleans. Adams had 100 catches for 1.516 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2022 with Carr as his quarterback.
Also high on Adams’ wish list are the 2–2 Jets, whose quarterback is Aaron Rodgers. The duo played together in Green Bay from 2014 to 2021, as Adams was a second-round pick of the Packers in the NFL draft.
As Adams got used to the NFL, the two had increasing success together, as the receiver had three seasons of 1,300 yards or more, and two more seasons with 997 yards each. Adams caught a career-high 18 touchdowns from Rodgers in 2020.
Even though Adams will be 32 years old on Christmas Eve and currently, dealing with an ailing hamstring, the Raiders don’t have the quarterbacks to get the most of him. Between Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell, it makes sense that Adams would want to go to a team with good quarterbacking. It makes even more sense that he would want to go to teams whose quarterbacks he is familiar with.
Who Else Could Be in for Adams?
However, while Adams has a wish list, the Raiders don’t have to trade him where he wants to go. With Adams on the market, the Raiders’ front office is likely being bombarded with calls.
Dallas and Kansas City will at least make a call to the Raiders, especially the Chiefs as #1 receiver Rashee Rice looks to be out for a while, if not the season, due to a knee injury. However, the Raiders would surely want to avoid trading their star receiver to their biggest AFC West rival.
Dianna Russini of The Athletic has also reported that Pittsburgh would be interested in trading for Adams, as they don’t have many weapons for Justin Fields (or Russell Wilson). However, Russini also reports that money will play a factor in who can get this deal done.
Adams is still owed $13.5 million for this season, which goes down each week as that is paid by the Raiders. Starting next season, Adams is owed $35.6 million in each season, with a cap hit of $44.1 million. That’s a massive amount of money for any team. However, if you think you’re close, Adams still has enough in the tank to be an excellent pickup. It seems like the Jets are in the lead right now, but don’t count the Saints.
