Cal Sports Report

Raiders Overtake Jets as Favorite to Land Aaron Rodgers

Hints here and there from Davante Adams apparently steer betting sites to Las Vegas as future home of former Cal quarterback

Jake Curtis

A few well chosen words from Davante Adams have tilted the betting odds on which team former Cal star Aaron Rodgers will play for next year. Suddenly the Raiders are the betting favorite to land Rodgers. Last week, the Jets were the heavy favorite.

The betting site SportsBetting.ag had these odds for which team Rodgers would play for next season if he is traded:

Raiders: -150, or 2-to-3, or 60% probability

Jets: +250, or 5-to-2, or 28.57% probability

49ers: +500, or 5-to-1

Buccaneers: +1200, or 12-to-1

Panthers: +1200, or 12-to-1

Patriots: +1200, or 12-to-1

Titans: +2000, or 20-to-1

Commanders: +2500, or 25-to-1

Colts: +3300, or 33-to-1

Giants: +3300, or 33-to-1

Falcons: +4000, or 40-to-1

Saints: +4000, or 40-to-1

Texans: +4000, or 40-to-1

Of course, that assumes Rodgers will play in the NFL next season and not retire, which he has not decided, and it also assumes the Packers will be willing to trade Rodgers, which is very much in question considering the cap implications for the Packers if they were to trade Rodgers.

But putting those two major issues aside, we are left with gamblers changing their betting ways about Rodgers’ future home. So what happened over the weekend that would cause the Raiders to jump past the Jets as the favorite to land Rodgers? Enter Davante Adams.

“Would I be interested in having Aaron Rodgers throw to me?” Adams said, when speaking to reporters this weekend. “Yes. I would love that. … I would love to have that, and obviously, that would be a dream scenario. One that I’m very familiar with.”

(Adams' addresses the Rodgers issue at the end of the video)

Asked whether he has had any conversations with Rodgers about coming to Las Vegas, Adams said, “We’ll keep that behind closed doors.”

Adams did say people should pay no attention to his tweets, which are mostly just for fun.

Asked by NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe on Sunday whether he has started recruiting Rodgers, Adams said this:

“Duh. Why would anybody not do that? I mean, 100 percent. That’s my guy, obviously. And wishful thinking but we’ll see what happens.”

And what is his recruiting pitch?

“That I’m here. I think it’s a pretty good one.”

During the 2021 season, when Adams and Rodgers played together for the Packers, Adams had 123 receptions for 1,553 yards and 11 touchdowns. The Packers earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC with a 13-3 record, and Rodgers won his second straight MVP award.

This season, without Adams, the Packers went 8-9 and missed the playoffs, and Rodgers had the worst season of his NFL career. Meanwhile, Adams’ new team, the Raiders, finished 6-11 in 2022, and quarterback Derek Carr, the reason Adams came to Las Vegas, is expected to be traded or released.

In a Saturday interview during the Pebble Beach pro-am, Rodgers was asked if he had a favorite color of a future team, Rodgers said this:

“Just going to say the predominant team we hear as we’re walking is Raiders. … A lot of ‘Davante misses you’ comments. We’re having some fun with it.”

Adams isn’t the only Raiders player who would like Rodgers to come Las Vegas.

“Of course, it’s A-Rod. That’s Aaron Rodgers,” Raiders running back Josh Jacobs said, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. “But, yeah, he’s a dog. If he was to come over here, I feel like that would change the aspect of a lot of things.”

A fan caught Rodgers’ ear during the Pebble Beach pro-am regarding Adams’ interest in having Rodgers come to Las Vegas, and Rodgers said, “Tell him to buy me a house.”

So Adams tweeted:

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith says it seems as though Las Vegas is where Aaron Rodgers wants to be:

Cover photo of Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams is by Jeffrey Becker, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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