Another week of the Las Vegas Raiders looking for a second-round pick for Davante Adams led to the Raiders keeping Adams on their roster.
The team is posturing publicly as though it could hold on to Adams for several more weeks, and potentially through the trade deadline. But multiple sources around the league tell CBS Sports they believe the Raiders are only bluffing.
“Feels a bit like Vegas is trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube to salvage Davante’s market,” one source said. “I think everyone knows their only play is to deal him.”
On Wednesday, Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce said Adams, who will be sidelined a second consecutive game with a hamstring injury, is getting healthier. And he struck a decidedly different tone than he had the previous week.
“The update is that Davante is doing well, the hamstring is getting there and he’s getting closer and closer to getting back on the practice field,” Pierce said. “He is still a Raider. He has never not been a Raider. When he’s healthy and can play, we’ll play him.”
Hurting the Raiders, sources say, was Adams’s trade request going public last week. Traditional thought in the NFL is once a trade request is known, the compensation decreases because the entire league is on alert.
Adams’ salary (now down to $11.6 million for the rest of the season) and age (he’ll be 32 in December) are also major factors in what Las Vegas can get in return for him. The Raiders had a second-round pick and then some on the table for Adams last year at the trade deadline, but owner Mark Davis considered an Adams trade a non-starter.
Adams initially had the Jets as his top destination, but sources warned he could be talked out of that. One source indicated that Adams spent the earlier part of the week reconsidering his Jets wishes after Woody Johnson fired Robert Saleh on Tuesday morning in a surprise move.
The Saints have been a contender for Adams, but they’ve now suffered three straight losses and could be without Derek Carr for multiple games due to injury. The Steelers and Bills have been monitoring the situation.
The Raiders have shown an unwillingness to pay some of Adams’ contract, even though that’s the most expedient way to get a higher draft pick for the three-time All Pro receiver.
“They’re already paying him to not play,” said one AFC executive, who questioned whether Adams would ever play again for the Raiders while the team pays a weekly salary of nearly $1 million to him.
Continuing to complicate matters is a later-than-ever trade deadline. This offseason the league voted to push the trade deadline back a week to Week 10, adjusting for the 17th game being added to the schedule a few years ago.
Because of that, the trade market for receivers — and any position, for that matter — hasn’t materialized like it normally would toward the middle of October. Though Adams would be one of the more sought-after receivers available, teams still don’t yet know whether they’d be buyers or sellers for other receivers in a few weeks.
“There’s been a lot of preliminary calls with teams about guys no one wants,” said one executive. “That’s where it’s at early. Teams are taking temperature waiting to see where things are at.”
League sources say the Chiefs, Bills and Steelers are the strongest contenders to trade for a receiver this season. It’s nearly impossible to believe the Raiders would trade Adams to the Chiefs, and Kansas City isn’t seriously entertaining that possibility.
But Adams or not, that trio of teams will continue to scour the market … once one develops.
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