After the Las Vegas Raiders officially gave star wide receiver Davante Adams his desired trade to the New York Jets this week, Raiders owner Mark Davis said that general manager Tom Telesco “did a good job…of making sure that we move forward in the future with as little distraction as possible.”
Las Vegas pass-rusher Maxx Crosby may have said plenty on Wednesday by what he didn’t say when asked if the Adams-Jets saga was a “distraction” for a Raiders team that lost back-to-back games to fall to 2-4.
“I mean, I don’t know,” Crosby explained, as Paul Gutierrez of ESPN shared. “I feel like it just depends on how much you put into it. I see a million things about me all the time, and I don’t know if you can consider that a distraction or not. It’s all just s— people make up a majority of the time. So at the end of the day, I just wish them the best. Like I said, I’m just worried about the guys that are here and winning football games.”
Stories linked Adams with the Jets almost immediately after New York landed quarterback Aaron Rodgers from the Green Bay Packers in the spring of 2023, as the two were teammates with Green Bay from 2014-21. Such whispers hovered over the Raiders this past summer even though Adams supported Antonio Pierce’s transition from interim head coach to full-time coach and insisted he was committed to staying with Las Vegas.
However, it was clear that Adams wanted to reunite with Rodgers before Las Vegas entered September with journeyman Gardner Minshew starting at quarterback over 2023 fourth-round draft pick Aidan O’Connell. After the Raiders fell to 1-2, Pierce publicly accused players of making “business decisions” during the Week 3 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Adams later missed three games with a reported hamstring injury.
“Davante is my boy,” Crosby added during his comments. “I love him to death. It’s really all I can say. You know, that’s my guy, but…I’m focused on who’s here now.”
Not long after Tom Brady officially became a minority owner of the Raiders, one insider said that two “high-up sources” within the New England Patriots believe “Brady’s first move is gonna be to ask Bill Belichick” to replace Pierce ultimately. How Pierce, Crosby and others within the locker room handle that potential distraction through Week 18 could determine if Davis decides to blow things up come January.
