Silver Minings: Davante Adams trade named Raiders’ best offseason move

Between making trades, signing free agents and handing out a few contract extensions, the Las Vegas Raiders have certainly been active this offseason. Every transaction has helped bolster the Raiders’ roster, on paper at least, but there’s one move that stands out from the rest, trading for former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Davante Adams.

Adams has established himself as a top wideout in the NFL and many, myself included, consider him the best at the position. To put it simply, players of his caliber don’t become available very often so Las Vegas pulling the strings to bring him aboard is pretty impressive and hard to top as far as offseason transactions go.

Recently, Pro Football Focus’ capologist Brad Spielberger wrote an article listing every AFC teams’ best offseason move and, to no surprise, named the Adams trade for the Silver and Black. It’s also worth noting that Maxx Crosby’s new deal got some love from Spielberger.

TRADING FOR WR DAVANTE ADAMS

Extending edge defender Maxx Crosby as soon as possible coming off his dominant 2021 campaign in which he led the NFL with 100 quarterback pressures was smart business, as his deal will surely be surpassed by a few other members of the 2019 Draft in due time. Las Vegas has been proactive the last few offseasons with early extensions, and these deals will help balance the major deals for newcomers including wide receiver Davante Adams.

Quarterback Derek Carr’s former college teammate has been the best wide receiver in the NFL over the last four seasons, with his 93.7 overall grade, 432 receptions, 5,310 receiving yards and 47 receiving touchdowns all leading the way at the position.

Defenses will now have to decide whether to send help toward tight end Darren Waller or Adams, and whichever player gets more of a one-on-one look will be unstoppable.

The Raiders only had to give up first- and second-round picks for Adams and in a best-case scenario, one of those two draftees would have turned into a player of Adam’s caliber. It was a “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” dilemma and Vegas went with the known commodity. Not a bad strategy for a team that’s gotten burned in the draft a lot in the last 20 years or so, especially with their early picks.

Without speaking for Spielberger, one has to imagine signing Chandler Jones and extending Hunter Renfrow were close thirds and fourths, assuming Crosby is second. Jones signed a three-year $51 million contract and brings over 107.5 career sacks, while Renfrow is coming off a Pro Bowl campaign and will be sticking around until 2024 with a two-year $32 million extension.

Still, it’s hard to debate against bringing in arguably the best pass-catcher in the game.

In other Raiders’ links:

• Denzel Perryman ranked among top linebackers: ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler polled executives and coaches around the league and the Pro Bowler fell just outside of the Top 10 for the position but gained some notoriety.
• New president, Marcus Allen’s expectations and more news: get caught up on everything you need to know including Sandra Douglass Morgan’s resume on this week’s episode of Holder’s Handful.
• Tim Brown talks Adams: “It was ‘wow,’” Mr. Raider told Silver and Black Pride on Thursday at the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament. “It really felt like a turning point for the franchise. It’s time to go for this team right now.”
• Player rankings 6-10: Levi Damien of Raiders Wire is releasing his Top 25 Raiders heading into the season and broke into the Top 10 yesterday.