In general manager Dave Ziegler’s first offseason with the Las Vegas Raiders, he made one of the biggest splashes of the offseason by trading for All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams. After eight seasons with the Green Bay Packers, Adams gets the opportunity to play for his favorite team in the Raiders.
Adams is joining Las Vegas in the prime of his already impressive career. At age 29, Adams has made five consecutive Pro Bowls and two consecutive All-Pro teams. He has had at least 1,350 receiving yards in three of his last four seasons and was just three yards shy of four straight 1,000-yard campaigns.
Ziegler had plenty of positive words for his superstar wide receiver that went beyond his production on the field, according to Rachel Gossen of Raiders.com:
“This isn’t a player who has been good for two years. This is a player who has been at the top of his game for a long time. When you learn about the player, you start to understand why he’s been at the top of his game for a long time. Highly competitive. High-level work ethic. Just very dedicated to being great every day. As the stories go, this guy goes as hard as anybody on a day-to-day basis in practice.”
There’s a reason that Adams has consistently been one of the league’s best receivers for a half-decade. While having Aaron Rodgers as his quarterback doesn’t hurt, it’s mainly because of the way he’s carried himself on and off the field.
In acquiring Adams, Ziegler has also shown a willingness to go all-in on quarterback Derek Carr and the Raiders as currently constructed. Despite a loaded AFC West, the Raiders could still be poised to make a run to the playoffs for the second straight season.
Adams, Darren Waller, Hunter Renfrow, and Josh Jacobs make up one of the better-skill position cores in the NFL, and the Raiders could be must-watch television every Sunday for that reason.
Josh McDaniels hoping for development from offensive line
If there is a question mark on the Raiders offense, it’s on the line. There aren’t many established names and faces protecting Carr, and while McDaniels is aware of this, he’s also hopeful. “I think we have a lot of players there that are not at their ceiling yet,” McDaniels said. “I feel pretty good about the group that we have, and now our job in the short term here is to try to coach them, get them to play better, each group, each man to play better, and that’s what I’ll focus on.”
“Again, our job will now be to work like hell to improve the guys we have,” McDaniels said. “The guys we have on the roster right now are competitive, and we’re going to try to coach them and improve them, and that’s our job. If we can’t make the players on our team better, then we got to do something different.”
