Darn. I really thought he was going to be a Packer.
I'm surprised Aaron Rodgers signed here if he knew Adams was leaving

Guess we will see how Aaron Rodgers responds without his guy.

Originally Posted by: Cheesey 

One player wanted to stay and another wanted out. I'll keep the one who wanted to stay. 😉

Originally Posted by: Pugger 

Oh, I agree with you 100%. I just didn't think Adams wanted out that bad .
It caught me off guard.

Originally Posted by: Cheesey 

Just couldn’t afford him. I wish him the best & I hope we get some awesome picks for him.

Originally Posted by: go.pack.go. 

Oh, I agree with you 100%. I just didn't think Adams wanted out that bad .
It caught me off guard.

Originally Posted by: Cheesey 

Davante Adams Deal 

Late in the free-agency prep process, about 12 days ago, Raiders coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler looked at Davante Adams’ tape independently. When McDaniels and Ziegler met to discuss what they’d seen, they agreed he was an incredible prize: great start-and-stop ability to create separation, big and thick but excellent short-area quickness, runs through defenders, excellent hand strength, dictates leverage. A premier talent.

Adams, a free agent who had told the Packers he wouldn’t play on the franchise tag, had been tagged by Green Bay nonetheless. Every team has been in this situation—an unhappy player saying he won’t play under his current deal. Ziegler didn’t know what to expect but called Packers GM Brian Gutekunst last Sunday, eight days ago. Over the next three days, they talked six or seven times. Late in the process, it became clear it would take a first-round pick and a second-rounder to pry Adams away. While Ziegler was willing to give Vegas’ first in 2022 and second in ’23, he didn’t want to denude his draft this year by giving both picks in 2022.

But in the opening days of free agency, you’re not just doing one deal. You’re cutting players—in Vegas’ case, linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski and defensive end Carl Nassib—and trying to get minor and major deals done too. While the Adams talks were getting serious, the outside world was moving fast at edge-rusher.

McDaniels and Ziegler both loved edge-rusher Chandler Jones, the 32-year-old former Patriot. They’d known him in New England, and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham coached on that defensive staff for Jones’ four seasons as a Patriot before Jones was dealt to Arizona. In order to pursue Jones, for cap integrity and roster balance, they probably had to move edge-rusher Yannick Ngakoue. Luckily, Ngakoue had engendered some interest, specifically from Colts GM Chris Ballard. And when Ziegler looked at the Colts roster, he saw a player he liked entering the last year of his contract: cornerback Rock Ya-Sin. As a Patriots scout, Ziegler had spent two hours with Ya-Sin at Temple the day before his 2019 Pro Day and found him cerebral and competitive.

Ziegler’s first talk with Ballard and the agent for Jones came Tuesday. By mid-afternoon Wednesday, Ziegler had to balance both deals. He wasn’t signing Jones without being sure he could deal Ngakoue. He had the structure of a deal done with Jones’ agent Ethan Locke but nothing set in stone. So around 4:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, Ziegler and Ballard agreed to the trade, and within 10 minutes, Ziegler finalized an agreement with Locke.

Success in one area. In another, Adams was getting to be a slog.

It became clear by Wednesday afternoon that Gutekunst was firm. The deal for Adams wasn’t getting done unless the Raiders traded both the first- and second-rounder in this year’s draft. That would give the Packers enough ammo to replenish the receiver group minus Adams in this year’s draft—four picks in the top 60 of a draft chock-full of wideouts. But it would rob the Raiders of any picks in the 2022 draft till 86th overall. Ziegler didn’t want to be shut out of his first draft as a GM through 85 picks.

They’d sleep on the Green Bay ultimatum Wednesday night. The next morning, McDaniels and Ziegler met in the room they were using as the sort of free-agency command center at the Raiders’ facility in Henderson, Nev. The meeting lasted four hours. Was there another creative way to entice Gutekunst? They couldn’t think of one. Pros and cons, cons and pros. Contract alternatives in case they could get Adams, and cap ramifications. Around noon PT, Ziegler and McDaniels agreed Adams was worth the one and the two this year. That’s how much they wanted Adams to be reunited with his good friend and former Fresno State quarterback Derek Carr.

Early in the afternoon Vegas time, mid-afternoon in Green Bay, Ziegler called Gutekunst and said they were willing to do the deal: Adams for the Raiders’ first- and second-round picks this year. But now they had to be concerned with getting a new contract done; Adams wasn’t playing on a one-year deal. Gutekunst gave them permission to talk with the agent for Adams, Frank Bauer. In the next couple of hours, the Raiders got a deal done that satisfied Adams—five years, average yearly compensation of $28 million, best for any wideout in the league—and one that satisfied the Raiders. The deal, practically, is three years for an average of $22.5 million a year, with no guarantees in year four and five. Vegas expects Adams will still be a big-time player in year four, when the contract would likely be extended or amended.

Now the deal could be consummated. When they got back on the phone, Gutekunst and Ziegler, to be official, so there would no mistake, each repeated the terms of the trade:

Davante Adams from the Packers to the Raiders. First-round and second-round picks in 2022 from the Raiders to the Packers.

“We’re good,” Ziegler said into the phone before hanging up.

He turned to his partner in this new Vegas adventure, his friend from the football team at John Carroll University just outside Cleveland in the mid-nineties.

“We’re good,” Ziegler said to McDaniels. “Got Davante Adams!”

Ziegler and McDaniels bear-hugged.

The deal gives Adams the most guaranteed money ever for a wideout, per a source: $65.67 million, with an eye-popping $42.75 million in compensation in year one. And it gives Adams the happiness he wanted: He wanted to play in the west, and his first choice was to be able to play with his college quarterback from Fresno State, Derek Carr. Adams gets the money, and he gets the happiness.

Carr was happy. Adams was happy. The Raiders were happy. The Packers, well, realized it was probably unwise to get in a possible holdout war with Adams, and now have the ammo to replace him with a veteran in trade or a couple of draft picks from a loaded wideout pool in the April draft.

Outside the building, the football world got bug-eyed over the stunning Packers/Adams divorce and what it meant for Derek Carr and the retooled Raiders. After the hug, Ziegler looked at his board. Back to work. Next job: importing free-agent running back Ameer Abdullah. Ziegler finished Abdullah’s deal Thursday night.

Gut feelings on the Packers, Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams
• I don’t think Aaron Rodgers is particularly surprised about Adams leaving, nor do I think he’s really angry about it. He’s known for some time that Adams’ heart was out west.

• I think Rodgers is year-to-year at this point. I saw the money he signed for. If he’s not enjoying the game or his place in it in 11 months, I could see him walking away.

• The decision-making of GM Brian Gutekunst reminds me of those GMs (Ron Wolf being one of them) who understand team-building is a continuum. It won’t surprise me if Gutekunst trades for a vet receiver, or signs one like Jarvis Landry off the street (that’d be my choice right now) and then uses the 22nd pick on one. He could trade for one and draft one, sign an aging one and draft one, or draft two. But the one thing Gutekunst can do is take the heat, and he will in the wake of losing Adams.

• Postscript on Adams: He wanted to play out west. He wanted to play, mostly, with Derek Carr out west. No crime in that. I always think fans bases should be grateful for the greatness they’ve been able to experience, and in this case, revel in what’s to come. If Rodgers stays two more years, get excited about the new receivers he’ll have in his stable, rather than mourn over a player whose heart was somewhere else.

GREEN BAY – There are good reasons the Green Bay Packers decided to trade Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders, even if it’s a bad idea to get rid of one of the best players in the NFL.

As much as the Packers wanted Adams back, they realized that the circumstances that had developed after the season would lead to a no-win battle of wills with one of the franchise’s classiest players. It was going to get ugly because they were going to have to spend the entire offseason doing what they did with quarterback Aaron Rodgers last year, which was convincing an unhappy player to come back.

General manager Brian Gutekunst wasn’t blowing smoke when he said after the trade that he looked forward to the day Adams returned and was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame. Adams didn’t have the same gripe with Gutekunst that Rodgers had, and the lines of communication were open between the two, sources said.

Many are under the impression that Adams asked to be traded when the Packers put the franchise tag on him, but it happened much earlier than that. Shortly after the season ended, he made it known that he wanted out and his desire was to play for the Las Vegas Raiders and quarterback Derek Carr, his former college teammate and close friend, a source said.

The public didn’t know Adams was adamant about leaving for the team he cheered for while growing up in East Palo Alto, California. But it was no secret among Packers officials that Adams wanted out.

The Packers must accept their role in Adams getting to that place. They had an entire year to sign him to a long-term extension befitting of the best receiver in football. But they stood firm against breaking their policy of guaranteeing anything but the signing bonus, so the amount of guaranteed money was never going to be to Adams’ satisfaction.

Adams didn’t want to drag negotiations into the regular season and so Packers vice president of finance Russ Ball and agent Frank Bauer engaged in very little negotiating from September to February.

According to a source, the deal the Packers were offering before everything broke down was worth about the same amount over three years as Adams accepted from the Raiders ($22.5 million average). But the Raiders' deal featured $22.75 million of fully guaranteed money and another $44 million that was partially guaranteed and would have a chance of being fully guaranteed.

It’s doubtful the Packers offered those kinds of guarantees.

Once talks hit a wall, Adams decided to play out the year and take on all the risk. The payoff, he hoped, was going to be a massive contract after the season either with the Packers or somebody else.

Adams put together the best all-around season of his career (given all the double-teams he faced) and was named first-team All-Pro for the second consecutive year. He ranks second in franchise history in receptions (669) and receiving touchdowns (73) and is fourth in receiving yards (8,121). After the season, many people made the mistake of thinking Rodgers and Adams were a package deal and that if one came back the other would, too. If one left, they would both leave. They have a special chemistry on the field and were the best quarterback-receiver combination in the NFL the past two seasons.

But the truth is, they were not linked.

Rodgers and Adams are tight on the field, but Adams is not part of Rodgers’ inner circle. Receiver Randall Cobb and tackle David Bakhtiari are, but Adams doesn’t run with that crowd.

He is very much a family man and doesn’t golf with celebrities or hang out in clubs or push his brand. The non-football-related photos on his Instagram account are mostly of his wife and daughter with some shots of his latest footwear mixed in. There are more photos of him and Carr than there are of him and Rodgers.

There’s no question Rodgers has helped his career, but it’s possible Adams got tired of being defined by it. Adams was given plenty of respect and credit for what he did on the field, but it was always overshadowed by Rodgers, whose superb play and celebrity dominates everything.

Rodgers heaped praise on Adams all year, so it’s not like he tried to devalue his teammate’s contribution to their success. But as much as he claims he doesn’t like the spotlight, he tends to embrace it, and sucks a lot of the oxygen out of whatever room he is in.

It all became about him again after the season ended. Was he coming back? And if he did, was it going to be for more than one year? Adams didn’t know what Rodgers was going to do and couldn’t know for sure how long he would play, so there was a lot of uncertainty with rejoining the Packers.

The one thing he knew for sure is that new Raiders coach Josh McDaniel likes the 30-year-old Carr, and if everything went well, he could be playing with him for the next five years.

The Packers had a better offer on the table than from the summer – one source said it was $25 million per year over three years – but Adams, after speaking with Carr and Bauer, was adamant he wanted to move on. Specifically, he wanted to play for the Raiders.

As many have reported, Rodgers knew about Adams’ desire well before he signed his record-breaking $151 million extension. There wasn’t anything he could do about it. Undoubtedly, he wanted Adams to stay, but his priority was his own contract and he wound up doing what was best for him.

Adams wanted to do the same. Gutekunst couldn’t have promised not to place the franchise tag on Adams; it would have been derelict of duty. But Adams was upset when it happened, most likely because it lessened his chances of playing with Carr.

The Raiders would have to give up two first-round picks to sign Adams as a non-exclusive franchise player and they didn’t want to give up that much.

Eventually, Gutekunst decided it was in the team’s best interests to trade Adams. They didn’t want his deal hanging over them the entire offseason and his $20 million cap number making life very difficult.

As Peter King pointed out in his weekly column, "Football Morning in America," Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler called Gutekunst on March 13 and the two talked repeatedly in an effort to reach a deal on compensation. If the Raiders would have signed Adams to an offer sheet, they would have had to give the Packers a first-round pick this year and a first-round pick next year as compensation.

Most football people consider a second-round pick this year as roughly equal in value to a first-round pick next year, so Gutekunst asked for a first and second this year. The Raiders balked and the deal nearly fell through, in part, because the Raiders wanted to keep their second-round pick for another deal they had brewing.

Gutekunst might have taken some players instead of a second, but league rules state that players can only be included in a sign-and-trade of a franchise player if he receives the exclusive tag. Adams had been given the non-exclusive tag so getting a receiver such as Bryan Edwards or a tight end such as Foster Moreau was out of the question.

Gutekunst stood firm and eventually, the Raiders agreed to give up the Nos. 22 and 53 picks in the ’22 draft.

Bauer was given permission to negotiate with the Raiders and they came up with a five-year deal worth $141 million, which is the highest per-year average for a receiver in NFL history. But the deal includes more than $71 million in the final two years, so it is effectively a three-year deal at an average of $22.5 million, which is less than the Packers’ final offer.

Adams will make $23.3 million in ’22 and $26.8 million in ’23 for a two-year average of $25 million. During the third year, he only makes $17.4 million. He should have gotten more fully guaranteed money, but as long as his production holds up, he’ll earn all $67.5 million and maybe be in position to renegotiate the final two years.

In the end, Adams got what he wanted.

As for the Packers, they won’t replace their star receiver with one guy. They’ll have to replace him in the aggregate and that means using those draft picks and the $20 million in cap money they cleared on some receiving help.

It’s not what the Packers wanted, but it’s the best they could do under the circumstances.

https://www.packersnews.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2022/03/24/davante-adams-asked-raiders-trade-well-before-packers-tagged-him/9440687002/ 

Tom Silverstein wrote: