Getty Davante Adams, Las Vegas Raiders
It is a popular parlor game around the NFL, isn’t it? The league’s trade deadline comes at the end of the month, which means there is ample time to poke, prod and postulate on potential deals, big and small. Generally, there are not that many significant trades at the league’s deadline, but that does not stop the fun of speculating on them.
The Raiders have one of the most-mentioned name in the pseudo-trade market, Davante Adams. It’s been a disappointing team, and Adams is a star 31-year-old veteran who wants to get to a Super Bowl sooner rather than later. Those elements feed into his trade-target status.
And when Adams publicly called out his teammates after the Week 3 loss to Pittsburgh, saying, “I don’t got time to just wait around. It’s not my mentality to take all season to figure it out …” well, the mock-trade machines went haywire.
But, according to ESPN, Raiders fans don’t have much to worry about. Adams wants to stay put, and wants to stay put for a long time. From ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler this week:
“With the Raiders struggling, Davante Adams is a popular name for fans to throw around as a potential dream trade candidate,. From what I’ve always heard, however, Adams has been set on playing in Vegas long-term. That has been the plan from when he got traded there in 2022. So unless something has changed, I don’t get any sense that he wants out.”
Davante Adams Still Among the Best WRs in NFL
Adams remains among the best receivers in the game, currently eighth in the NFL in receiving yardage (397) and tied for third in receptions (33). But Adams’ window as a top-flight receiver in the NFL is closing, and despite his many individual accomplishments—six Pro Bowl selections, three All-Pro honors—he has never won a Super Bowl.
Heck, he’s never been to one. Adams helped the Packers to four NFC championship game appearances in his career, but was 0-4.
He’d hoped that joining the Raiders back when they were coming off a 10-7 season and a trip to the playoffs would be the start of turning the silver-and-black into a contender. But new coach Josh McDaniels has been a disaster thus far, and though Adams seems to have good chemistry with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, he’s thrown a league-high six interceptions and there are questions about whether he is a long-term answer.
Can Aidan O’Connell Give Davante Adams Hope?
But maybe Adams, like so many others in the Raider Nation orbit, sees some hope in rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell, who made some mistakes in his debut last week against the Chargers, but also showed promise. O’Connell was excellent in the preseason, and Adams has spoken well of his thus far.
That’s another reason that Adams is no asking out. (Not yet, at least.)
“And as a nod to the future, I’m also told he’s a big believer in Aidan O’Connell, the fourth-round rookie who stepped in for the injured Garoppolo (concussion) against the Chargers. Obviously, Garoppolo is entrenched as the starter, but O’Connell gives Las Vegas a real option to develop,” Fowler wrote.