Davante Adams Trade: Grades for Raiders, Jets and Full Winners and Losers from Deal

One of the biggest off-field storylines of the 2024 NFL season reached its conclusion on Tuesday morning. Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams, who previously said that he'd "prefer" to be traded, was indeed dealt to the New York Jets.

According to NFL Media's Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero, the Raiders will receive a conditional 2025 third-round pick that can become a second-rounder if Adams is a first- or second-team All-Pro or if the Jets reach the AFC title game this season.

New York will absorb the entirety of Adams' contract in the deal.

Adams, meanwhile, gets to reunite with former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in New York.

As is the case with every blockbuster trade, there are winners, there are losers, and we have thoughts. You'll find trade grades for the Jets and Raiders along with our picks for the biggest winners and losers of this deal here.

Trade Grade: C+

We can consider the Jets winners in this deal, while simultaneously giving them a modest grade.

This isn't the sort of franchise-altering trade that will set up New York for sustained success. Adams is a 31-year-old receiver who may only be a short-term rental because of his contract. In 2025, he'll carry a base salary of $35.6 million.

Rapoport reported that Adams has restructured his contract for this season but that his numbers for 2025 and 2026 have not been adjusted yet.

Of course, the Jets are desperate to win this season, as evidenced by the team's firing of former head coach Robert Saleh roughly a week ago. While adding Adams won't fix all of New York's issues, it should boost the play of Rodgers and the offense overall.

Adams has been dealing with a hamstring injury, but is in a "good place," according to Rapoport. He racked up 1,144 receiving yards and eight touchdowns last season and, most importantly, has a preexisting connection with Rodgers.

If Adams' tenure with the Jets only runs through the rest of this season, New York will have overpaid. If the move helps spark a deep playoff run, no one in the organization will care.

Trade Grade: B+

Are the Raiders a better team without Adams? No. However, the receiver made it clear that he had little interest in sticking around for the latest rebuild. And while Las Vegas was hoping to get more out of trading the six-time Pro Bowler, there wasn't a ton of interest at the initial asking price.

"That lack of high-level interest has more to do with the Raiders' asking price—a second-round draft pick and additional compensation—along with the fact Las Vegas has said it doesn't want to pay any of the money left on Adams' contract," ESPN's Adam Schefter wrote on Saturday.

This is about as good a deal as the Raiders could have hoped for, and the timing of the trade makes sense. Barring an injury to another star receiver, Adams' price point was unlikely to rise ahead of the November 5 trade deadline—and it certainly wouldn't be higher in the spring.

Adams was highly unlikely to be back on his current contract anyway, and Las Vegas now has extra draft capital with which to chase its quarterback of the future. Perhaps most importantly, the Raiders didn't have to pay any of Adams' future salary to facilitate the deal.

The biggest losers of this trade are other teams that were hoping to land Adams—though, perhaps, not at Las Vegas' asking price. There is no shortage of receiver-needy teams in the NFL, and a few had been linked to the three-time first-team All-Pro.

According to The Athletic's Dianna Russini, the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs had been among teams "monitoring" Adams' situation. The receiver would have made sense for either squad—though Buffalo quickly found an alternative.

According to Rapoport, the Bills acquired Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns on Tuesday.

The Bills have lacked a true No. 1 target since trading Stefon Diggs in the offseason, and Cooper should help fill the void. The Chiefs have lacked a top option since Rashee Rice suffered a season-ending knee injury. Of course, the Raiders were never likely to help their division rivals.

The Pittsburgh Steelers lack a high-end complement to George Pickens, while the New Orleans Saints could have reunited Adams with quarterback Derek Carr—who was his teammate in Las Vegas and at Fresno State.

According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the Steelers had "strong interest" in Adams, while New Orleans was a logical landing spot along with New York.

"The feeling among the people I've spoken to is Las Vegas has started with the Saints and Jets," Fowler wrote on Saturday.

Teams that missed out on Adams will now have to turn their focus elsewhere.

Rodgers has said that he'd prefer to keep playing after this season, though he stopped short of guaranteeing it.

"I'm hopeful I can play two or three or four more years, but you need to have some good fortune in there too," the 40-year-old told the Look Into It podcast back in March (h/t Ethan Greenberg of the Jets' official website).

Rodgers will be thrilled to have Adams by his side for however long their latest run currently lasts. Statistically, the quarterback was at his best with Adams in Green Bay's lineup, and his production took a major hit when the receiver was traded to Las Vegas during the 2022 offseason.

In 2022, Rodgers passed for only 3,695 yards—his lowest full-season total as a starter—and posted a 91.1 quarterback rating. With Adams in the lineup the previous two seasons, Rodgers was the league MVP.

Though they lost, the Jets saw some offensive improvement on Monday night with Todd Downing as the new play-caller. Now, Rodgers gets to throw passes to an old favorite. We have yet to see how the reunion actually plays out, but New York's signal-caller has to feel good about where things go from here.

Aidan O'Connell, who reclaimed Las Vegas' starting job in Week 6, probably doesn't feel great about his post-Adams future. There's certainly no guarantee the second-year signal-caller can become the Raiders' long-term answer at quarterback, but he at least has another chance to audition.

O'Connell started 10 games for Las Vegas last season but lost the starting job to Gardner Minshew during the preseason. Head coach Antonio Pierce pulled Minshew after a 2-3 start.

While Adams hasn't been in the lineup, he played well with O'Connell last season. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, his rapport with the quarterback was part of the reason why Adams had a chance to stay in Las Vegas.

"Another factor as to why Adams might not necessarily be moved—and sources insisted it should not be discounted or overlooked—is that he is a big supporter of Raiders quarterback Aidan O'Connell, who was named the new starter this week," Schefter wrote on Saturday.

Adams didn't stay, and O'Connell will have to move forward without him.

While Adams may have been a "big supporter" of O'Connell, we have to imagine that he's happy being back with Rodgers. The unknown is how the receiver views the reunion long-term.

According to Russini, Adams had some reservations about Rodgers' future before the trade.

"While Adams would like to be reunited with his former QB, I was told he has some concerns about Rodgers' plans to stay in New York past this season," Russini wrote on October 5.

In the short term, though, joining Rodgers in New York will be good for Adams, who will turn 32 in December. On paper, the Jets are more likely to contend this season than the Raiders—though they share a 2-4 record—and Adams rejoins a quarterback with whom he enjoyed playing.

"How could you not," Adams told Kay Adams of Up and Adams when asked if he missed Rodgers on October 1.

Adams doesn't have to miss Rodgers anymore.

If adding Adams helps New York win, current Jets receivers like Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard should be happy with the move. Wilson, for his part, appears excited about adding another playmaker.

However, from a statistical perspective—and, yes, a fantasy football standpoint—adding Adams isn't great for Wilson and Lazard, who have emerged as Rodgers' two favorite targets this season.

Statistically, the move will probably impact Lazard more than Wilson—Nico Collins' production didn't take a hit when the Houston Texans added Stefon Diggs. However, Adams will take targets and receptions away from every other Jets' pass-catcher.

That, along with the financial implications of potentially keeping Adams beyond 2024, is relevant for Wilson, who will be extension-eligible in the spring. There's a non-zero chance that if Rodgers plays in 2025, the Jets decide to pay Adams and delay Wilson's extension.

Wilson, for the record, is set to earn a base salary of just $1.1 million next season.

From a statistical and fantasy perspective, moving Adams will be great for Raiders pass-catchers Jakobi Meyers and Brock Bowers.

Bowers, the rookie tight end out of Georgia, has already established himself as Las Vegas' top target—and one of the best players at his position in the league. He's already racked up 37 receptions for 384 yards and a touchdown, and the Raiders will continue feeding him the football.

Fantasy managers who have Bowers on their rosters should be ecstatic over Tuesday's trade.

Meyers, meanwhile, now serves as Las Vegas' top perimeter receiver. The trade is a terrific development for the 27-year-old, because his base salary is set to jump from $5 million this season to $10.5 million in 2025.

The Raiders could potentially save $6.7 million in cap space by releasing Meyers in the spring, but that becomes an unlikely move with Adams out of the building. If anything, Meyers could be looking at a raise and an extension instead.

One thing has become clear since Adams first requested a trade—no team is going to just go out and meet another team's asking price for a wide receiver during the 2024 season. While the Raiders got a more-than-fair return, it's not exactly what they wanted.

That's relevant for any other team looking to move a veteran receiver before the trade deadline. While there isn't exactly a plethora of big-name receivers publicly on the trade block, there are a few logical candidates.

According to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, the Jets will now attempt to trade receiver Mike Williams. Struggling teams like the Tennessee Titans could also look to move impending 2025 free agents like DeAndre Hopkins.

Adams, while expensive, is under contract through 2026. If he can only net a conditional third-round pick, receivers on expiring contracts will be worth less.

The Browns, for example, moved Cooper shortly after Adams was traded and got a 2025 third-round pick and a 2026 seventh-round pick for the receiver and a 2025 sixth-rounder, according to Rapoport.

It's a good development for teams looking to add a receiver not named Adams. It's a losing situation for any team now looking to move one.

*Contract information via Spotrac.