It's hard to think of many players who have played their cards more poorly than Davante Adams has over the last three years. He decided to leave Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in 2022 despite the fact that the team was a consistent Super Bowl contender.
He chose to join his buddy Derek Carr on the Las Vegas Raiders and it became clear quickly that was a massive mistake. The Raiders under Josh McDaniels were a disaster and Carr wasn't the same quarterback he was at Fresno State.
Despite that, Adams still put up big numbers and was happy. That was until he had Jimmy Garoppolo throwing him passes. That's when things started to get dicey and reached a tipping last season. Nobody would blame Adams for wanting to leave a bad Raiders team but the way he went about it was so baffling.
He had all offseason to let the team know he wanted out but he decided to wait until after a win when the Raiders were 2-2 before asking out. Who does that? It's OK to be frustrated with work but who decides to quit on their team when they aren't out of the mix?
The even more baffling part was that he pushed to get moved to a bad Jets team. It quickly became apparent that they weren't a Davante Adams away from being a good team. Also, he so desperately wanted to reunite with Rodgers who clearly wasn't the same player. Why did Adams force his way out of Green Bay if he wanted to play with Rodgers so badly? None of it makes any sense.
Adams Gets Canned
Adams' series of poor decisions caught up with him on Tuesday after the Jets announced that they were releasing the wide receiver. He's now going to lose millions because of it.
For the Raiders, this has to feel amazing. They got a third-round pick for a wide receiver on the decline and didn't have to eat any of his contract.
For Adams, this is an all-time disaster. Had he stayed with the Packers, perhaps they finally get over the hump and win a Super Bowl? At the very least, he would've kept putting up All-Pro numbers. If he just stayed with the Raiders without acting like a diva, he'd still be a respected player and maybe would've had a chance at a big contract this offseason.
Now he just looks like an aging wide receiver with a difficult personality who clearly doesn't care that much about winning. He'll be lucky to make decent money this offseason but he's definitely not getting anything close to what he was making.
Had he just waited to request his Raiders trade and then kept his mouth shut about the franchise, he'd still have fans defending him but he totally alienated the fan base for a team that he claims to have been a fan of growing up. It's hard to feel bad for him because he clearly didn't care about making the fans who spent a ton of money on watching him play and buying his jerseys feel bad.