It’s too late for the Rams to think of trading for Davante Adams to save their season
After months of speculation that the Las Vegas Raiders would trade Davante Adams, only to constantly be rebuffed by the Raiders and Adams that no trade would ever happen, it sure is starting to look like the Raiders are going to trade Adams. On Tuesday, Raiders beat reporter Vincent Bonsignore wrote that the team was finally open to taking calls on Adams. Then NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport took it a step further, tweeting that Adams told the team he preferred to be traded than to stay in Las Vegas.
As much as this news might have helped the Rams in the past, it’s too late for L.A. to think of trading for Davante Adams now.
#Raiders star WR Davante Adams informed the team that he preferred to be traded, per me and @MikeGarafolo.
There is nothing imminent, but a situation to watch for sure. pic.twitter.com/AAs5nxwqxl
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 1, 2024
The 2-2 Raiders are coming off of a 20-16 win over the Browns and Las Vegas is shockingly not out of the AFC playoff picture, which they normally might be already at this time of year.
The team is also ninth in passing attempts, so it’s not as though Adams won’t get his share of opportunities in Las Vegas either.
However, the Raiders have spread the ball out this season, with four players all essentially getting the ball: Brock Bowers has 216 yards, Adams has 209 yards, Jakobi Meyers has 201 yards, and Tre Tucker has 172 yards.
It’s fair to say that the Raiders might not even look all the much different on offense without Adams because there’s only so much the team can do with Gardner Minshew at quarterback.
And Davante Adams would LOVE to play for Sean McVay and with Matthew Stafford. A combination like that could make him as deadly as he was with the Packers and Aaron Rodgers. However, it makes more sense for Adams than it does for the Rams.
Any team trading for Adams has to take on what’s left of his $16.9 million base salary (so $13 million as of now) and then must consider whether Adams will want to have his future salary guaranteed; he’s owed $36 million in salary in 2025 and 2026, but it isn’t guaranteed. The Rams are already figuring out how to deal with Cooper Kupp’s 2025 salary, let alone another over-30 wide receiver making that much money.
It also wouldn’t be advisable for Les Snead to part with any draft picks for a receiver when the team still desperately needs the most help of any team in the league on defense.
As exciting as it would be for the Rams to acquire Davante Adams, they can’t afford the picks or the salary, it probably wouldn’t help them win games, they might not know how to make it work when all three receivers are healthy, and it might be too late to win enough games anyway.
But it seems like Davante Adams will play for another team this season besides the Raiders. It just probably won’t be the Rams.
