How The Packers Won The Davante Adams Trade

It speaks volumes that Aaron Rodgers signed his massive deal, which was a cap-friendly deal to stay with the Packers, knowing the Packers were most likely going to get rid of Adams. The Packers offered Adams a better deal than the contract he’ll sign in Las Vegas, according to his representatives Frank Bauer and Kenny Chapman.

Simply said, playing for the Las Vegas Raiders has been a lifetime ambition for Adams, as well as playing with his college quarterback Derek Carr.

According to Ian Rapoport, National Insider for NFL Network and NFL.com, he said “While Aaron Rodgers was negotiating his contract, he knew Davante Adams would never play for the Packers again. The situation was too far gone. Something had to give. And when Adams informed GB he wasn’t playing on the tag, talks got fired up.” 

How many WRs above the age of 30 finished in the top 30 in receiving yards? Zero (A.J. Green was 32nd with 848 yards)

Make no mistake, Davante Adams is the best receiver in football by a large margin and is getting paid a deserved 28 million dollars per year. The Packers were not willing to do this and they were very adamant about having Adams play on the franchise tag more than anything.

If you take a look at the Packers’ salary cap, they’re paying Rodgers top dollar. They’re also paying running back Aaron Jones, who currently is the seventh-highest paid running back in the NFL.

They currently have no wide receivers or tight ends that are noteworthy, but they should get a veteran or two, like a Will Fuller, or bring back Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

They are paying David Bakhtiari as the second-highest paid left tackle in the league. Elgton Jenkins will need a contract in 2023. Jenkins will start at the right tackle when he is fully healthy from his torn ACL and will get paid top dollar as well.

On the Packers’ defense, they also are paying Kenny Clark, who is the seventh-highest paid defensive lineman in the league.  The Packers also have a rising star in Rashan Gary who was drafted in 2019. Gary will be needing a contract extension soon.

De’Vondre Campbell is now the 12th-highest paid linebacker in the league, at 10 million each year, and who they just re-signed this offseason cycle.

The Packers are in talks to re-sign Jaire Alexander who wants to be the highest-paid cornerback. The Rams’ Jalen Ramsey is the highest-paid corner making 20 million per year.

The Packers also have Darnell Savage Jr. and Adrian Amos on the roster whom they need to re-sign next offseason. Amos is making 9 million. Expect him to get around 12 to 13 million a year when his contract is due. 

With every great team, players are going to leave because of the limitations of the salary cap, and Adams in particular was one of those guys.

Adams right now is getting paid as the 12th highest-paid player in the NFL, and the Packers just didn’t want to pay that.

The biggest reason why the Packers traded Adams is DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins is getting paid 27 million dollars a year. And while Hopkins is a great wide receiver, he’s limiting his team to signing free agents, and the Arizona Cardinals have a quarterback Kyler Murray who’s on a rookie deal that they need to pay.

Unfortunately, Davante Adams was the odd man out in this situation.

A Good Deal for the Packers

The Packers now have more salary cap to sign more players to balance the team. They also have two first-round picks and two second-round picks. That’s a lot of trade value and also young talent they can add for the future.

The Packers, with those draft picks, can draft young players who can potentially serve for them later on in their careers. That’s four potential starters who are going to be making rookie contract amounts and can play at a high level.

This wide receiver class looks stacked as a whole. They can potentially draft a receiver such as Jameson Williams from Alabama, George Pickens from Georgia, and Christian Watson from the North Dakota State Bison. Drake London from the USC Trojans can also be a Packers “type”,  a wide receiver that they could go after. 

Raiders’ Point of View

The Las Vegas Raiders‘ point of view of this trade is that they get a bona fide No. 1 receiver that they have lacked for multiple years on end. Now they get a guy who they can rely on to play in and play out to be that alpha wide receiver that they need.

In a hypothetical trade article, I had the Raiders getting Brandin Cooks from the Houston Texans for a first-round pick, mainly because Josh McDaniels got him while he was on the New England Patriots.

They did not have an “alpha” number one type of receiver on their offense, and now they do. Adams mostly wanted to play for the Raiders because of his former college quarterback, college roommate, and college friend Derek Carr.

Paying 28 million dollars a year for a soon-to-be 30-year-old wide receiver is not going to work out well. Then, they go and give him a five-year deal on top of that?

Now the AFC West has gotten a lot better. Are we sure the Raiders are even the best team in the division with this trade? 

Overall, this is a great trade for both teams. Both teams get better in some ways. Both teams get a little worse in the grand scheme of things, but it’s an even trade. 

Thanks for reading my article on the Davante Adams trade. For more quality football content, consider following my Twitter account @joshripka1, and follow @OTH_Football and@OT_Heroics on Twitter and Instagram.

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