Davante Adams is clear about why he’s still a member of the Las Vegas Raiders.
“If I wanted to be gone, I’d be gone by now,” Adams said. “This is where I want to be.”
The star wideout’s sentiments, which he expressed at his football camp, according to The Athletic, have certainly changed since last season, when he was adamant that something needed to change in Las Vegas. Adams was not happy: The team he’d grown up supporting had done little to make him feel welcome after he was traded there in 2022, and despite reuniting with his former Fresno State teammate Derek Carr, the pair were unable to net much success on the offensive end. Things weren’t much better defensively, and Adams’ first year in Vegas ended outside the playoff picture.
For Adams, although he’d recorded one of his best individual seasons (100 catches, 1,516 yards, 14 TDs), missing the postseason would not suffice.
“We got to figure out the big picture,” Adams stated following the 2022 season.
The Raiders cut Carr shortly after their last game and signed veteran QB Jimmy Garoppolo to a three-year deal the next month. Adams had some choice things to say after the pair of moves, which led to budding rumors that he might be traded.
“You almost get numb to it a little bit,” he said on teammates being released or traded. “It’s a little bit different when it’s one of your good friends.
“[The front office] think this is the best bet for us right now to put us in a position to be urgent. We don’t see eye-to-eye on what we think is best for us right now. I’m going to have to buy into this and try to be as optimistic as possible. It’s not what I expected to happen, but it’s something that’s the reality now. My goal is to win a Super Bowl with this team. And that’s why I didn’t come here to just be cute with Derek [Carr]. It is to really try and have a shot and change this organization.”
A year later, Adams seems to believe he can do that with the new group in charge. The Raiders fired head coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler after a 3-5 start last season, leaving linebackers coach Antonio Pierce to be the interim headman. And Pierce, who was already a fan-favorite prior to his promotion, was given the full-time role following the advocacy of several players, including Adams.
“It’s already helped the morale of the team,” Adams said on Pierce’s promotion. “It’s what we were all looking for: To be able to continue with the same mindset that we had. That’s our guy. We’ve got to get to work now. … It’s about what we go out there and do.”
Trade talks surrounding Adams have cooled for now, and it appears he wants to be in town for the foreseeable future. Trading him wouldn’t bode well for Las Vegas’ pockets either, as the team would take a $23.55 million dead money hit if they traded him before June 1, and $7.85 hit in 2024, plus another $15.7 million in 2025 if they dealt him after that date.
New GM Tom Telesco appears to be in all on winning now, having made major deals this offseason, including signing Christian Wilkins to a four-year, $110 million deal, and Gardner Minshew to a two-year, $25 million contract.
For Adams, the goal is leadership by example.
“I got to be the type of guy that’s about business and not just about talk,” he said. “If I’m going to be that, I expect that from everybody else.”
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National Football League
Las Vegas Raiders
Davante Adams
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