Mark Davis on Davante Adams trade: “Players come and go”

The Raiders bought out the contract of receiver Davante Adams for two weeks. On Tuesday, the Jets finalized a deal that sends him from the 2-4 Raiders to the 2-4 Jets.

At the quarterly league meeting in Atlanta, owner Mark Davis discussed Adams' decision to move on 37 games into his tenure with the team.

“It's part of this football life” Davis said, per TheAthletic.com. “Players come and go. If things don't work, they don't work. [G.M.] Tom Telesco did a good job today so that we move forward with as little distraction as possible in the future.”

The word “distraction” underscores the reality that the recent report about the Raiders possibly keeping Adams through the end of the year was nothing more than an attempt to squeeze the best possible trade terms out of his new team.

While Davis certainly wasn't happy about the prospect of paying Adams $983,333 every week to not play, Davis said he let Telesco and coach Antonio Pierce handle the situation.

“I leave those decisions up to the general manager and the head coach,” Davis said. “They make football decisions. I consult with them and I can play devil's advocate at times, but they decide and they make the final decision.”

In the end, the Raiders did not pick up any of Adams' remaining salary. That certainly kept them from getting the second-round pick they coveted for Adams — a second-round pick they'd only get if he was a first- or second-team All-Pro.

Given that he has already missed three games this year, he should have plenty of numbers in the final eleven games to make the All-Pro team. He has 18 catches for 209 yards and a touchdown in 2024. That puts him in a nine-way tie for 76th in the league in receptions. He is 70th in receiving yards.

In the end, the Raiders surrendered a first-round pick and a second-round pick for Adams, while returning only a third. They paid him more than $55 million for his 37 games in Las Vegas.

Along the way, they never made the playoffs, posting a 16–24 record during Adams' tenure with the team.

Still, today's trade counts as lemonade and/or chicken salad. They were going to pay him $983,333 per week for 12 weeks, and they would have cut him before the start of the 2025 league year, when his massive $35.64 million salary would hit the books.