Raiders Believe Davante Adams Hit Breaking Point Even Before Start of This Season

According to SI's Albert Breer, "those in Las Vegas" believe Adams's attitude shifted in March.

Adams was traded to the New York Jets last week / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Davante Adams trade saga came to its glorious conclusion last week as the All-Pro wideout's trade request was granted by the Las Vegas Raiders. He now resides in New York with old pal Aaron Rodgers and made his Jets debut on Sunday Night Football in Week 7. As the dust settles the odd tidbit of insider knowledge will arise to help further fill out the picture of how Adams's relationships in Vegas went sideways.

On Monday, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer provided one such nugget in his Week 7 takeaways column.

"An interesting leftover on the Davante Adams saga: Those in Las Vegas thought his attitude toward the team changed back in March, when the team signed Gardner Minshew II," Breer wrote. "Evidently, that wasn’t a good enough quarterback plan."

It is certainly intruiging that those within the organization feel that way because, publicly at least, Adams held pretty strong to the stance that he wanted to be a Raider right up until his trade request. He spent a chunk of his summer fighting a river of rumors that he wanted to be traded so he could play with Rodgers and the Jets. It was a lot of effort if he already had one foot out the door.

But the Minshew signing does make sense as an inflection point. The decision indicated the Raiders weren't trying to swing big and find an immediate answer at quarterback. Minshew is competent on his good days and beloved by fans all over the NFL but a championship-level player he is not. Signing him meant Las Vegas had no plans to delve into the trade market or try to find a long-term answer in the draft.

In other words, the Raiders were fine with the status quo and didn't want to rock the boat after finishing 8-9 in 2023— a fine team-building plan, as contenders are not built in a day. But not exactly an appealing one for a 32-year-old wideout who believes he has good football left in him.

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