Davante Adams Requests Trade—5 Ideal Landing Spots for Fantasy Football
Davante Adams has requested a trade from the Las Vegas Raiders. Or as it was reported, he “preferred” a trade from the team that sent first and second-round picks in the 2022 NFL Draft to the Green Bay Packers for three-time All-Pro. If he’s played his last game as a Raider, where could he land, and what would be the ideal landing spots to impact fantasy football?
Our Matthew Freedman locked in Adams’ value to a potential suitor: “Last year Adams had a league-high 79% WOPR, and before his benching/"injury" in Week 4 he averaged 9 targets in his first three games this year. Adams is still good enough to make an impact in fantasy and reality, and I expect whatever team trades for him to be a contender looking for a No. 1 WR.”
As recently as last season, Adams drew 175 targets, which gave him six consecutive seasons averaging over 10 targets per game. That is fantasy gold, and if he can get a quarterback upgrade over Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell, the player taken on average at pick 22.9 in Yahoo drafts this past summer could become an incredibly valuable player the rest of the season to so many fantasy teams. And the trade compensation may not be otherworldly, so he really could be on the move.
Where could he land? Here are five possibilities:
Pittsburgh Steelers to Pick Adams?
Ian Hartitz dove in and is looking to send Adams to the Steel City: “Davante Adams to the Steelers: It won’t be fun. It won’t be good for fantasy. Nobody other than Steelers fans will like it. But as much as we hate to admit it, this is the most likely outcome. So deal with it.”
George Pickens would get a downgrade, but imagine how much space he would clear out underneath for Adams with so many of his deep routes. And we’ve seen Justin Fields feed a WR1 in DJ Moore last year on the way to 96 receptions and 1,364 yards. Fantasy managers would be waving Terrible Towels feverishly.
Adams to Chiefs Kingdom
After the injury to Rashee Rice, the NFL and fantasy football communities have speculated on wide receivers landing in KC to catch passes from Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes to Davante Adams! As great as Rice was playing, he’s not Davante Adams.
Rice saw 29 targets in the first three games, drawing a 26% target share and 32% TPRR. That’s very much elite, and projecting that volume to Adams coming from Mahomes would drive him into the top 5 of weekly rankings. To make it happen, the Raiders and Chiefs would have to get past being AFC West Division rivals. That’s all.
J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!
Reunited and it feels so good. Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams made music even more beautiful than that Peaches and Herb 1978 classic, averaging 119 receptions, 1,464 yards, and 15 TDs in their last two seasons together.
The Jets are motivated to win now, and Rodgers has done a good job to collect friends to take flight to come play with him (Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb). This would be a ding to Garrett Wilson’s first-round ADP, but how hard would this team be to defend against the pass? Rodgers has looked like his old self at times in the early portion of this season, and would look even greater with a pair of top-flight receivers to pass to.
Another Weapon for the Cowboys
Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb both got paid, but wouldn’t they look even better with another weapon in the fold? Then the Cowboys could really test the theory of whether a team needs a running game to succeed.
Before asking if there would be enough passes to go around, well, think about this for a second. Lamb drew 181 targets out of 590 total passes that Dak threw last year. That’s plenty of leftover target inventory to go to Adams. Could any team double either one? No way. They’ll feast like Thanksgiving in Big D.
Hail to the Commanders
With Jayden Daniels as the NFL’s early 2024 darling, what do you say we get him another toy to play with? This one could make sense. Terry McLaurin is great and all, but he could definitely take a backseat to Adams and still gobble up plenty of targets in his own right.
And with Daniels on a rookie contract, the Commanders could be the right team to eat up a large contract like Adams’ deal. McLaurin is drawing a 27% target share, with no other Commanders WR seeing more than 12%. Just picture Daniels pitching it to Adams with our nation’s capital almost as excited about its franchise QB as Matthew Berry is about Daniels.