It’s no secret that the Raiders are trying to get a second-round pick for Davante Adams, and the consensus from insiders around the league has been that they are probably asking too much.
Bill Belichick made it clear on more than one occasion this week that he wouldn’t come anywhere close to giving up a second-round pick for Adams.
“That’s a very high price to pay for a player [with his contract],” Belichick said on the Pat McAfee Show. “I’m not sure… what his contract situation would be next year, whether you could afford his contract next year, or whether the new team would want to re-do it. I think for really a one-year contract, I think that’s really more of like a fourth or a fifth-round pick.”
But one league insider this week made a compelling case for why the Raiders should hold their ground on the asking price for Adams.
In short, FOX Sports insider Jordan Schultz believes Jets GM Joe Douglas has a tremendous amount of pressure on him to win now, and there will be no next year for Douglas in New York if the Jets don’t turn their season around.
“If I am Joe Douglas, I’m going all in on trying to get Davante Adams,” Schultz said this week on the The VSiN Morning Line. “The Raiders have been adamant not only about getting a second-round pick, which I’ve heard no one has come even remotely close to, but also about not eating a significant portion of Davante Adams money, so you have not one, but two potential issues for teams trying to get Davante.”
“If you are Joe Douglas, who cares?” Schultz continued. “What do you care about a second-round pick? If you don’t win this year, you’re gone anyway. I have no doubt about that. If the Jets don’t win this year, I do not believe Joe Douglas will be retained. So, to me, he should be as aggressive as possible about trying to get Davante Adams.”
Aside from a GM on the hot seat, the Jets also have a quarterback in Aaron Rodgers who is in the twilight of his career and desperately wants to bring Adams to New York. Rodgers has a strong voice within the organization and will have little regard for the future of the organization.
Would it surprise anyone if the Jets cave and get Rodgers the wide receiver he is demanding?
Looking ahead, there are still four weeks on the NFL schedule before the trade deadline, and that’s a lot of time for a team like the Jets, Saints or Bills to become more desperate to add an elite wide receiver.
For now, it seems like the Raiders are willing to pay Davante’s salary, and potentially even put him on the field, while they wait for the offer they are looking for.
x: @raidersbeat