The Las Vegas Raiders have a very different outlook on their future than they did one year ago.
Davante Adams isn’t a fan.
The Raiders went all in prior to the 2022-23 season, as the ex-New England Patriots contingent of head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler dove head first into the deep end in an effort to compete in the vaunted AFC West. Las Vegas extended quarterback Derek Carr and star pass rusher Maxx Crosby, signed another star pass rusher in Chandler Jones and completed a gigantic trade to cap it all off — prying Davante Adams away from Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.
The results? Las Vegas went 6-11, cut Carr, traded star tight end Darren Waller, replaced Carr with Jimmy Garoppolo and decided to add youth to the roster via free agency in the draft. It’s a far cry from what they did one year ago, and Adams has made it clear he isn’t a fan of the direction of his franchise.
“(The front office) think this is the best bet for us right now to put us in a position to be urgent,” Adams said, via The Ringer. “We don’t see eye-to-eye on what we think is best for us right now.”
Yikes.
To make matters worse, Adams is clearly peeved with the Raiders’ decision to move on from Carr, his long-time friend and former college quarterback. In fact, he says Las Vegas’ success will ride on whether his new QB can conform to his style of play.
“It all depends on the style of ball that we play,” Adams says. “If we play a certain brand of ball, I can get (Garoppolo) to conform to whatever. But if we use him a certain type of way, then it’s going to make it tough for us to maximize who we should be this year.”
Those statements are quite combative from Adams, who had a good statistical season last year but didn’t provide the impact that the Raiders assumed he would when shipping a first- and second-round pick for him last year. Perhaps he might want to conform to their new system.
