Davante Adams ‘locked in’ with Raiders; should Jets still push for trade?

National Football League

Published Jul. 18, 2024 12:47 p.m. ET

Davante Adams certainly wouldn’t mind playing with Aaron Rodgers again, but the star wide receiver insists that he’s happy with the Las Vegas Raiders and recently downplayed trade rumors involving him and the New York Jets.

“If I’m gonna be reunited with anybody … or relocated and be anywhere, it’d be with Aaron,” Adams said Wednesday. Rumors about a possible reunion between the pair have been running wild since earlier this week when Rodgers said that he “can’t wait to play” with his former Green Bay Packers teammate “again.”

“There was a lot of that stuff going on last year in the media,” Adams added. “It ended up getting all the way to the point where it got in the locker room and people [were] thinking that I was the driving force, and I’m like, ‘Y’all just don’t understand.’ When you — and I hate to say it like this because it makes me sound like I’m trying to put myself on a pedestal — are a certain level of player, it (rumors) don’t have to come from you, and oftentimes it’s not coming from you.”

Rodgers’ comment also comes on the heels of Adams’ frustrations throughout the 2023 season being put on full display in the newly released Netflix docuseries “Receiver,” leading many to wonder if he wants out of Las Vegas.

Despite the recent speculation and rumors, however, Adams’ side has thrown water on the fire multiple times. A day prior to Adams’ comments, his agents denied the notion that their client was set to be moved, saying that the rumors were nothing but “baseless, unfounded speculation and [that] Davante is expected to be with the Raiders as there has been absolutely no trade talk — period,” per ESPN.

This isn’t the first time that the pair have been linked together post-Packers, however. Adams has been linked to the Jets almost ever since Rodgers was traded in 2023. Amid the Raiders’ rough start to the 2023 season, the Jets reportedly tried to trade for Adams in November ahead of last season’s deadline after pondering a possible move for several months.

It makes sense if Adams is the Jets’ great white whale. He and Rodgers were one of the league’s best quarterback-wide receiver duos over their final few seasons together in Green Bay. Adams made two first-team All-Pros while Rodgers won back-to-back MVPs in their final two Packers seasons together.

Even though Adams and his camp are indicating that he doesn’t want out of Las Vegas, “First Things First” host Chris Broussard believes that the Jets should still try to make an all-out effort to get the star receiver.

Should the Jets go all-in for Davante Adams?

“They’re already all-in,” Broussard said. “This is in their minds. None of us think they’re going to reach the Super Bowl. In their minds? They’re Super Bowl or bust. They’re certainly playoffs or bust.

“My point is this: You have a 40-year-old quarterback. You’ve bolstered the offensive line with a 33-year-old Tyron Smith, who’s injury-prone. If you don’t make the playoffs at least this year, your whole staff is probably going to be fired. This is not a five-year plan, it ain’t even a two-year-plan. Go for it, future be darned.”

However, co-host Nick Wright believes that the Jets making a Hail Mary offer for Adams and continuing to borrow from future assets doesn’t make much sense.

“There has to be a happy medium between, ‘We’re going for it,’ and ‘We’re liquidating all of our retirement to go on a sweet vacation,'” Wright said. “You cannot put more eggs into the 40-year-old quarterback coming off a torn Achilles, coached by Robert Saleh basket. You have to leave something [for the future].

“They already traded significant draft capital for the quarterback. They then went out and got Mike Williams. Everyone loves Garrett Wilson. … They have an amazing skill position group, I understand. Now, they’re going to trade more draft capital?”

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