Getty Davante Adams with Jimmy Garoppolo.
Davante Adams has been frustrated with the Las Vegas Raiders all season and much of that has been due to substandard quarterback play from Jimmy Garoppolo. The team has officially decided that rookie Aidan O’Connell will be the starter going forward and Adams has no problem with that.
The star wide receiver gave his thoughts on the quarterback situation for the Raiders right now.
“We’ve all been working and throwing together since camp so it’s not my first time catching balls from him,” Adams said of O’Connell during his November 2 media availability. “It’s been a shift. Jimmy’s been hurt a couple of times, [Brian] Hoyer’s been in there so we’ve kind of had a bit of everything, but it’s been good.”
O’Connell started one game earlier in the season against the Los Angeles Chargers. He struggled as he lost three fumbles and an interception. However, Adams had eight catches for 75 yards that game, which is more catches and receiving yards than he’s had in any of the last four games. O’Connell knows how to get Adams the ball better than Garoppolo or Hoyer could. It remains to be seen if he’ll be an upgrade but he at least gives the team hope for the second half of the season.
Davante Adams Talks Josh McDaniels & Dave Ziegler
The biggest change the Raiders made this week was the firing of head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler. Davante Adams was in a noticeably good mood but made it clear that he appreciates Ziegler and McDaniels.
“I just want to say I really appreciate Josh [McDaniels] and Dave [Ziegler] for bringing me here and going through what they went through in order to make this happen for me,” Adams said. “And I’m really appreciative of them because if they didn’t fight as hard as they did to try to make this happen, who knows how it would’ve panned out? It didn’t end up being the storybook finish that we all hoped that it would be, but you can’t live your life saying, what if I would’ve not came here? What if they would’ve never taken a job?”
Ziegler was the one who traded for Adams so he might not be a Raider right now if it weren’t the general manager. However, he agrees that it was time to make a change.
Las Vegas Raiders Locker Room Much Happier
All signs from the Raiders’ locker room were that the players were much happier. In fact, Davante Adams was seen playing basketball on a mini hoop with running back Ameer Abdullah.
This is the greatest Davante Adams video of all-time
Despite the team seeming much happier, Adams wanted it to be known that they weren’t celebrating Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler getting fired.
“Don’t get it confused-it’s not a celebration that we have a new coach and there’s been changes made,” Adams said. “We, obviously, think it was time, one way or the other, for some sort of change. Just to bring a little juice in and revitalize the team a little bit.”
Sometimes a big change is needed to shake things up for a team. The Raiders haven’t played a game yet so it remains to be seen if the levity will lead to better play on the field.