For a long time, people would’ve forgiven you if you didn’t think that Davante Adams was going to be the NFL’s top receiver. Over his first two seasons in Green Bay, Adams caught a total of 929 yards, 88 passes and four touchdowns. It wasn’t until the fifth year of his career that he eclipsed the all-important 1,000 receiving yards benchmark.
Then Matt LaFleur came to town to revitalize the Packers’ offense. And from 2020-2021, Adams reached the pinnacle of his field: he was a First-Team All-Pro. Twice. But with success, there comes a price–An extremely lucrative price.
After Aaron Rodgers signed the most expensive contract in NFL history to return to Green Bay, many had speculated what Adams’ future in green and gold would entail. The Packers had franchise-tagged their second-best player, but they had nowhere near the resources to keep him on the books with the state of their sorry salary cap.
And so, with little recourse other than the outright eject button, Adams is now a Las Vegas Raider.
Reunited 🙌 @derekcarrqb @tae15adams pic.twitter.com/hDwIpvJsnS
— NFL (@NFL) March 17, 2022
Wow. Feel free to pick your jaw up off the floor.
Let’s pick apart this blockbuster deal between the Packers and Raiders and make a clear judgment on who looks better on the other side.
Green Bay Packers receive: 2022 first-round pick, 2022 second-round pick
Las Vegas Raiders receive: WR, Davante Adams
Packers grade: B
Let everyone who watches football that you care about know this one thing:
The salary cap does matter. It is very real. Stop spreading those lies.
You should know better, and you are harming the greater football community when you say otherwise. If it were fake, Adams would still be a Packer.
Okay, with that critical aside shelved away, I can’t see how anyone at Lombardi Ave stomachs this deal. Yes, the Packers had their backs against the wall financially after bringing Rodgers back. But part of going all-in with a quarterback nearing 40 is making sure he has a full complement of talent. The Packers figure to be in play for Super Bowl 57 and every foreseeable future Super Bowl as long as Rodgers is alive and kicking and his arm still has some juice in it, and that won’t be forever. He doesn’t have the time to wait on prospects to develop.
The last team that should be trading away All-Pros is a team with a quarterback nearing 40. Unless Green Bay is getting the reincarnation of a young Randy Moss (or even Ja’Marr Chase) with either of the Raiders’ picks, they’re not going to replace 29 touchdowns over the last two years. Most normal players, no matter how talented, take time to mature.
Most Super Bowl offenses also have legitimate game-breaking weapons up and down their depth chart. I don’t know the Packers’ plan to get back to that level for Rodgers, but it better be good. He has a $75 million dead cap hit at the end of his new contract. Perhaps, by then, the Mystery Box Receiver(s) they’ll definitely be picking in this year’s draft will have been star(s) on a championship team.
The bill that forced them to trade Adams will come around again. Maybe next time it won’t be so painful.
Raiders grade: A+
After the arms race the AFC West got caught up in over the last week, it would’ve been malpractice on the Raiders’ part to not make multiple moves.
Chandler Jones was an excellent start for new head coach Josh McDaniels. Davante Adams is the incredible cherry on top.
How else can I put this? Las Vegas acquired the best receiver in the league — an All-Pro in his physical prime — for a first-round pick that will probably be in the 20s, and a second-round pick. That’s the equivalent of your buddy in fantasy football getting password access to your roster and trading himself your top players but throwing something back in because he “felt bad.”
No, Paul, that didn’t make me feel better!
This deal’s a multi-million bank heist executed in broad daylight, with little care for innocent people walking on the sidewalk, plain and simple. Let them pay him whatever he wants. They’re in it to win it, and they’ll pay their bill later (like the Packers once did).
In the non-roster football sense, Adams is a perfect fit for the Raiders. He already has an established rapport with his former college teammate at Fresno State in Derek Carr. The last time these two were on the same team with the same common goal, Adams caught 42 touchdowns in two seasons. It won’t be difficult for them to recreate much of the same magic in the NFL.
Even better, for those who lamented Green Bay’s occasional lack of offensive diversity, there will be no such issues in Las Vegas. Darren Waller is a Pro Bowl-level tight end in his prime. Hunter Renfrow is one of the league’s premier slot receivers, also in his prime. That three-headed receiving Cerberus is what I’m talking about when I say teams need multiple walking matchup problems to win Super Bowls. It’s the picture-perfect ideal, and the Raiders now have one.
McDaniels and Co. should consider themselves fortunate they possessed all the leverage in this trade. They have a championship offense on paper. The next step is to make the most of it. But that’ll be easy. Getting Adams for what amounts to pennies was the hard part.
