Tafur: Why the Davante Adams-Raiders marriage was wrong from the very beginning

Two and half years ago, the Las Vegas Raiders traded for Davante Adams. It was a big day. There might have been balloons. They gave up a first- and a second-round pick to get one of the elite receivers in the league, and some members of the media got pretty excited about it.

But the Raiders never even sniffed the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl, and bad decisions and a general lack of success chipped away at the relationship to the point where Adams has most likely played his last game for the Silver and Black.

According to a league source, Adams requested a trade on Monday, one day after the Raiders beat the Cleveland Browns without him. Adams was out with a hamstring injury, but apparently his feelings were hurt when coach Antonio Pierce liked an Instagram post insinuating Adams might be traded. Pierce hasn’t said whether or not that was a mistake; he is scheduled to speak to the media at 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday. But even if it was an accident, a trade would fix a problem with Pierce that has been lingering since training camp — and with the organization long before that.

See, Adams and the Raiders were never on the same page. That covers two front-office regimes and six starting quarterbacks in Adams’ 37 games with the franchise.

Adams signed off on the trade to the Raiders partly because he grew up a fan of the team in East Palo Alto, Calif. — but mostly because he wanted to play with his good friend and college quarterback at Fresno State, Derek Carr. General manager Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels not only traded two premium picks for Adams but gave Carr a contract extension and signed free-agent pass rusher Chandler Jones to signal they were all in.

But … they weren’t. There were holes on the roster, and Ziegler and McDaniels soured on Carr to the point where they benched him for the last two games of the 2022 season. They wound up cutting the franchise’s all-time leader in passing yards without getting anything in return.

Adams tried to say the right things, but he started to lose his patience when McDaniels brought in Jimmy Garoppolo to be the starting quarterback in 2023. Teammates have always loved Garoppolo, but this version — the one who failed a physical when he signed, needed foot surgery and then couldn’t deliver accurate passes — was hard for the six-time Pro Bowl receiver to stomach.

A loss to the Detroit Lions the day before Halloween was the last straw for Adams, who slammed his helmet to the turf during the game, and, it turned out, for owner Mark Davis, who fired Ziegler and McDaniels the next day. Pierce, previously the linebackers coach, was promoted to interim head coach, and he immediately benched Garoppolo for rookie Aidan O’Connell.

Adams had a camera crew following him around last season for the Netflix documentary “Receiver,” and his contention on the show that he “signed off” on the Garoppolo benching irked some in the Raiders’ building. (He would use the same phrase again after Gardner Minshew II beat out O’Connell for the starting quarterback job this August.) Adams and his family members also took some verbal shots at Garoppolo on the show.

Some saw Adams putting himself before the team at times, and many teammates rolled their eyes at how he came across on the show. There was a lot of dramatic sulking and “me” talk instead of “we” talk that didn’t go over well when the program aired just before training camp this summer.

Adams had talked about a “fresh slate” as recently as July, but during training camp and the preseason, it felt like something was off. Adams left the team during camp for the birth of his first son, and while the team thought it would be just for a couple of days, Adams was gone for 10. Then when he came back, he said he didn’t want to play in the second preseason game. (He hasn’t gotten his uniform dirty in the preseason since 2017.)

Pierce was told of Adams’ preference the next day and replied, “No, if you’re healthy, you’ll play.”

Guess who came up with an injury the next day?

Adams does have a legitimate hamstring injury now and was unlikely to play Sunday against the Denver Broncos anyway. It’s unfortunate that many on social media thought he was making a “business decision,” thanks to comments Pierce made after an embarrassing Week 3 loss to the Carolina Panthers. The coach openly questioned his players’ effort — a mistake, he later admitted. And while Adams did not play well in that game, totaling just four receptions on nine targets for 40 yards, it seemed Pierce was instead referring to several defensive players (cornerback Jack Jones was benched for the first quarter against the Browns).

To be clear, Pierce liking the Instagram post was another mistake. Regardless of his culpability or intent, that kind of thing simply can’t happen. I can’t imagine Andy Reid spending much of his free time on social media.

“It’s always some sort of drama,” Adams said on his weekly paid appearance on the “Up & Adams” show. “But, at the end of the day, 17 doesn’t create any of it.”

3x All Pro WR Davante Adams addresses his HC Antonio Pierce liking a post suggesting Adams will be traded…

“I haven’t heard from him (Pierce)… I don’t really know exactly what that’s all about.”@heykayadams @tae15adams @Raiders pic.twitter.com/xMusj9nMFx

— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) October 1, 2024

The Raiders have indeed been a ridiculous telenovela for two decades now, but Adams is no innocent victim. He has talked about his frustrations and the potential of reuniting with former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers regularly for two years now, and he may soon get his chance if the New York Jets offer the Raiders a second- or third-round draft pick.

But you can’t really blame him. The Raiders were 6-11 in 2022 and 8-9 last season. This year, nine wins seem like a best-case scenario after a measured free-agent approach by new general manager Tom Telesco and some season-ending injuries on defense.

Adams has had enough. And whether they trade him this week or closer to the Nov. 5 trade deadline, so have Pierce and the Raiders.

(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)