Davante Adams Gives Ultimatum to Packers for 2022: Report

Despite the franchise tag, Davante Adams isn’t a sure thing to take the field with the Green Bay Packers when the 2022 season begins.

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Adams has informed the Packers that he will not be playing on his $20.12 million franchise tag for the upcoming season. The team will have until the tag-signing deadline of July 15 to work out a multi-year contract extension with their two-time All-Pro receiver, but Rapoport added the two sides “remain far apart” on reaching a long-term deal.

If the Packers and Adams are unable to reach an agreement before the deadline, Adams will be locked into his one-year franchise tag for 2022. He would not be required to attend minicamp in the spring or training camp in the summer if he did not sign his franchise tag, and he could technically sit out until Week 1 of the season before any fines or penalties would begin to incur.

The Packers placed the franchise tag on Adams just before the March 8 deadline, keeping him from hitting unrestricted free agency and buying themselves more time to lock down one of their franchise’s most prolific pass-catchers for the long-term future. Now, regardless of how things develop down the road for Adams, they will have to free up another $20.12 million in cap space before the new league year begins on March 16.

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Packers Offer to Make Adams Highest-Paid WR

The Packers have been attempting to work out a new deal with Adams since early last offseason with the end goal in mind of making him the NFL’s new highest-paid receiver. Unfortunately, the two sides have been unable to agree on how much exactly that distinction should be worth when compared with other top-earning receivers.

Technically, the NFL’s highest-paid wide receiver is DeAndre Hopkins, who is making $27.5 million per season on the two-year extension he signed with the Arizona Cardinals in September 2020. The short length of Hopkins’ deal, however, has caused many to instead view Julio Jones’ contract ($22 million per year) as a more appropriate benchmark in terms of average annual value. It is somewhere between those two numbers where the Packers and Adams have struggled to see eye-to-eye.

The good news is the Packers have budged some throughout the process. According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the Packers have “closed that gap significantly” in their negotiations with Adams and have even offered to make him the highest-paid receiver in the NFL “by far” with their most recent offer.

Here’s what Pelissero said Monday about the situation with the Packers and Adams:

The Packers, I am told, have closed that gap significantly. Their most recent offer to Davante Adams would make him by far the highest-paid receiver in NFL history on a traditional contract extension, but there are still fundamental differences in terms of what this contract should look like in terms of structure as well as in terms of length. Adams is 29 years old, so if he signs, let’s say, a five-year extension, that eats up the rest of his prime, so this could take some time here.