With Davante Adams situation brewing, let’s see how Raiders maintain forward momentum

Consistency eluding Antonio Pierce’s team and Las Vegas must stop the week-to-week rollercoaster despite superstar wide receiver’s trade request

If the Las Vegas Raiders 2024 season were an actual rollercoaster, it’d be the most awaited thrill ride at the popular theme parks across the nation.

Filled with peaks and valleys that’ll rock you to your core, no one can say the ride the Silver & Black are taking us on is boring. It may excite you or even anger you to no end, but uninteresting this thing is not.

Take the latest development in the desert for example: Elite wide receiver Davante Adams reportedly telling the Raiders on Monday he prefers to be traded.

While the rumor mill has been swirling from the offseason and bleeding into the regular season on the Raiders moving Adams with the notion of trading the superstar wideout a non-starter just this past Sunday, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the tune quickly changed on Tuesday.

Instead of shooting down rumors, Schefter and other NFL insiders quickly filled social media with reports Adams has requested a trade and the Raiders would consider a second-round pick in return for the wide receiver.

Ambiguity, be gone!

Or is it?

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted: “The Raiders are trying to win games and there are plenty of scenarios where Davante Adams stays in Las Vegas. But there are also scenarios where he’s headed elsewhere. And he’ll have a market.”

All this after Las Vegas topped the visiting Cleveland Browns 20-16 this past Sunday to improve to 2-2 on the young season. This is quite the freefall dip from that high the Raiders experienced just a few short days ago.

“Yeah, listen, the fans have been great. The fans haven’t been a problem. The fans show up,” a thankful Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce said in the post game press conference. “You know how Raider Nation is, man, they love you, they hate you, they come back to love you again. And that part you appreciate because you know what you’re getting each and every week, right? It’s honest. You respect it, and they don’t hide their emotions.”

Ironically, love-hate relationship encompasses the Adams-Raiders situation.

Whether on accident or on purpose, Pierce liking a trade rumor social media post involving Adams irked the wide receiver. And the fact that Adams noted he hadn’t talked to Pierce about that compounded matters. At this point, intent is likely to mean very little as the perception of that situation looms large.

But what’s done is done.

It appears only a matter of time before Adams gets his requested trade and is off to another team or remains a Raider resulting in potential awkwardness. But how Las Vegas performs from here on in is going to be very intriguing — for not only Raider Nation, but owner Mark Davis.

We’re going to find out if Pierce, his coaching staff, and the players have the fortitude to forge a successful path forward. How Pierce leads his team and how his players perform from here on in will go a long way into helping answer the mammoth question for Davis: Did I make a mistake making Pierce my head coach or not?

Pierce and his Raiders must find a way to maintain their forward momentum, even in the face of this gargantuan hiccup that’s the Adams situation. Especially with the Week 5 matchup at the Denver Broncos, who are not only 2-2, but AFC West divisional foes.

Veteran defensive tackle Christian Wilkins exhibited the proper mindset during his media availability on Monday.

“If you take the 24-hour rule approach in the NFL, that’s kind of the best way I look at it and always what it is. You celebrate, you enjoy, you do what you need to do for those 24 hours. Then, ‘Hey, put your head down, get back to work, start getting ready for the next opponent, win, lose or draw,’” Wilkins said when asked about the roller coaster of ups and downs and ensuring the high of a win doesn’t get too high. “And if you take that approach, and I’ll encourage guys to do that, like, ‘Hey, that was cool, but let’s keep stacking.’ Because typically, the good teams in the league continue to stack wins and don’t stack losses. So, that’s kind of my approach and my mindset going forward.”

That harkens on the “winning cures everything” approach. The opposite of that saying is “losing poisons everything” and somehow, some way, the Raiders’ ability to have drama even after getting a victory and improving to .500 after merely four games into the 2024 campaign has got to be the most downtrodden patented nature for a football team.

That said, however, if Pierce navigates his desert marauders to victory after victory and stacks wins, that’ll go a long way to changing the moribund narrative that’s been associated with the Raiders for over two decades (their last successful post season run that saw a berth in Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003).

The moments of brilliance have been fleeting, but they’ve been there for Pierce’s Raiders. There’s intriguing weapon Brock Bowers who is a tight end by title but can play all over the field. The offensive line has two young pieces that can be glue types in rookie guard Jackson Powers-Johnson and rookie tackle DJ Glaze.

The defense boasts the relentless Maxx Crosby, energetic Wilkins, sparkplug middle linebacker Robert Spillane and others. And Las Vegas boasts two of the premier specialists in punter AJ Cole IIII an Daniel Carlson.

The Raiders are not devoid of talent and it’s up to Pierce to maximize the return on all those players. He, his coaching staff, and the players need to dig deep, take a one game, one win at a time approach, and come together even if the team’s best wide receiver isn’t intent on sticking around for much longer — allegedly.

Las Vegas may have rolled snake eyes when it comes to Adams time with the Raiders and it certainly appears a breakup is the best route to take. While reports stressed nothing is imminent on the trade front, Adams wants to be on a consistent winner with hopes of landing another Lombardi Trophy and Super Bowl ring. And that just isn’t Las Vegas at the moment.

Because we’re still not sure if Pierce can capture the ever-elusive consistency and complimentary football that’s been routinely absent for the Raiders.

Let’s see Pierce navigate the choppy Adams’ waters and steer his team to a road win over the Broncos this Sunday. That’s the only way for the Raiders to maintain the forward momentum they generated in Week 4.