The case for and against Raiders trading Davante Adams in 2024 offseason

No, the Raiders should not trade Davante Adams and here's why

It seems like overkill to once again bring up all the horrendous offensive stats, so please believe me when I tell you that I'm only doing it to point out that none of this was Adams' problem.

How he managed to still find his way to a 4th-straight 1,000+ yard season should be the topic of NFL Film's next great documentary. And while there's surely a slow down coming in the next few years, there's no real reason to believe that slow down's already started. He's only on the Raiders' books for another three seasons, which seems fairly tolerable, even if the decline begins to show up. Three years is an eternity in the NFL, and there's really only one reason to believe the Raiders can't compete for AFC West titles sometime soon – and as long as that reason's team refuses to give him competent wide receivers, anything's possible.

Then there's the whole contract situation.

There's no doubt he's getting paid a small fortune – as things stand currently, he'll take up at least 10% of the team's cap in each of the next three seasons (and 17% in '25!), which seems like a lot until you play with all the fun little sliders on OverTheCap and realize the Raiders have, like, a half-dozen exit strategies. If they wanted to, they could save $17.5 million next season with a post June-1 trade. That number jumps to $36 million the season after that, the last of his guaranteed years. On top of all that, any sort of restructure/extension wipes all the dead money off their books.

It's a big contract, but a workable one. If there's a quick turnaround, and he wants to finish his career as a Raider, there are plenty of cap-friendly avenues to do so. Also, it's not your money, so who cares!

All of that brings us to our most basic of points: trading away good players is dumb. Sometimes it's inevitable, but that doesn't make it less dumb. Next year's offense would take a step back without Adams, and there are plenty of teams around the NFL right now in the middle of learning that one step back doesn't always mean two steps forward. 31 isn't even that old (writes the 31-year old). Lots of teams would want a 31-year old Davante Adams, and the Raiders have one.

Sometimes it's as simple as that.

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