Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams shut down any talk of his comments being construed by others that he’s unhappy with the team.
Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams has been the talk of the team’s offseason, due in part to his comments about the team.
In an interview with The Ringer, Adams said of the team’s offseason and the vision of the team: “I’m going to have to buy into this and try to be as optimistic as possible. It’s not what I expected to happen, but it’s something that’s the reality now.”
This talk of the Raiders’ moves caused plenty of trade speculation to follow.
While meeting with reporters on Thursday, Adams shut down any speculation that he is unhappy with the team, saying that he likes general manager Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels and that his comments were taken out of proportion.
When asked about his comments being analyzed by others, Adams simply said, “If you’re that bored, go play Monopoly or some s**t.”
Davante Adams tells those analyzing his every word to ‘go play Monopoly’
“I’ve never been encouraged to speak up and share my feelings with the organization the way I have with these two guys,” Adams said, h/t ESPN. “It’s never my intention to bring any type of negative attention or throw off the focus of the team or whatever, which did not happen, by the way.
“I don’t ever want Jimmy to feel a way, think that I didn’t want him here or I don’t like him, or I don’t want Josh to feel like, or I post a picture with Zigs, and they’re like, ‘Oh, is it Josh? That must be the real problem.'”
The Raiders acquired Adams last offseason from the Green Bay Packers and signed him to a five-year, $140 million contract extension, making him the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL.
Signs of change began when McDaniels benched quarterback Derek Carr late last season. Carr was Adams’ former teammate at Fresno State. After beginning a search for their new quarterback, the Raiders concluded that Jimmy Garoppolo was the right player for them. Garoppolo, of course, was with the New England Patriots organization at the same time as McDaniels and Ziegler.
In the aforementioned interview with The Ringer, Adams said of Garoppolo’s play style, “If we play a certain brand of ball, I can get [Garoppolo] to conform to whatever. But if we use him a certain type of way, then it’s going to make it tough for us to maximize who we should be this year.”
The Raiders will have Adams leading the receiving corps alongside Hunter Renfrow and former Patriots wideout Jakobi Meyers.
It will remain to be seen how the offense will get going with Garoppolo. Not only because of the tough division and conference that they play in but also due to the new Raiders starting quarterback working his way back from foot surgery that was performed after signing with the team in March.
While those might have taken Adams’ initial comments in the aforementioned interview as unhappiness with the Raiders, he stressed on Thursday that he is glad to be with the organization.