Raiders, Jets Davante Adams trade analysis: The inevitable conclusion

I wouldn’t say it was always a foregone conclusion that Davante Adams would be traded or that he would reunite with Rodgers in New York. But it had been headed that direction for a while now.

Davante joined the Raiders in 2022 with dreams of winning a lot of games with his college QB Derek Carr. And doing with the Raiders of whom he grew up a fan. It was a fairytale reunion.

It was also a deal that was as little as one year and not expected to last past three years. This year being the third year.

Again, that doesn’t mean it was always a done deal that he was out after three years, but it was a high likelihood. And when Derek Carr was cut after just one season together, the likelihood of Adams’ deal not going past three seasons only increased.

But Adams stayed with the team, citing that the main reason he came to the Raiders was because he wanted to be a Raiders, not just to play with his college QB.

That put the door open a crack for the Raiders to do something to keep him. Namely — get him a QB.

That obviously never happened.

There were rumblings the Raiders were thinking they could land Tom Brady. But that fell apart and they ended up with Jimmy Garoppolo instead. But instead of going hard after a QB in April’s draft, they selected Tyree Wilson and waited until the fourth round to select Aidan O’Connell.

We know what happened then. In fact, the entire sports world knows quite well what happened then. At least they know how it went down from Davante Adams’s perspective because it was followed closely in the Netflix series Receiver.

Things were unraveling for Adams in Las Vegas. Here is a potential Hall of Fame wide receiver who doesn’t have a ring and is on the wrong side of 30 feeling like he’s wasting away on a bumbling offense without a franchise QB.

The Raiders could have traded Adams in April. Many thought Adams would want that to happen. But they didn’t. Holding onto him would be wise if you’re, say, selecting a QB high in the draft and want him to have a reliable target.

That didn’t happen either.

The Raiders started winning some games late last season on the strength of their defense. And at 8-9, they slotted at 13th overall. That turned out to be just low enough for them to miss out on all of the draft’s top QB’s.

Six quarterbacks were selected in the first 12 picks. The Raiders really wanted Antonio Pierce’s old college QB Jayden Daniels, but there was no way Washington was trading out of that spot. They wanted…