If Davante Adams is Traded, the Raiders Will Choose Between Two Hefty Cap Hit Numbers

Once the Raiders decide on a GM and a head coach (which will presumably happen at some point in January), one of the first big decisions for the team will involve Davante Adams.

To this point, Adams has only indicated that he wants to remain with the Raiders, but the belief is that the direction of the organization will have an impact on where he wants to play next year.

We know the Jets want Adams and a report on Wednesday indicated that the Raiders would want more than a first-round pick for their All-Pro wide receiver.

If it ends up that the Raiders decide to trade Adams, there isn’t a way around taking a significant cap hit in the process. Essentially, the Raiders can take the full cap hit in one season or break down the amount over the next two seasons.

Spotrac’s Mike Ginnitti explained the two scenarios this week…

“If the Raiders have to reset their coaching staff again after 2023, the core players are bound to get restless. Adams has already been linked to Aaron Rodgers and the Jets for 2024, so let’s at least play out that scenario financially.

A Pre June 1st trade means $16.76M of cap loss for Las Vegas. In most cases, it would be recommended that they wait until June 1st, split up the $31.5M of dead cap across two years, and take the $23M+ of savings next season.

But if the plan is to disengage, the smarter move may be to take as much dead weight on as possible next season, making it a purge year for the organization.”

If the Raiders fire Antonio Pierce and GM Champ Kelly after the season, it would make sense that a new regime would want to perform a total reset of the roster.

Whether they say it publicly or not, new decision makers almost always try to carry out a roster reconstruction. It happened with Jon Gruden and it happened with Josh McDaniels. If Pierce isn’t retained, it will probably happen again… and it might set the stage an interesting offseason with Adams.

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