Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce vowed to keep his focus on football after wide receiver Davante Adams made a trade request a couple of weeks ago and his message hasn’t changed much in the wake of Tuesday’s trade that sent Adams to the Jets.
Pierce said, via multiple reporters, that it will be business as usual for the Raiders after the trade. Pierce noted that Adams did not play in the team’s last two games, so they are already familiar with heading into games without the wideout.
“Next man up. Move on,” Pierce said.
Jakobi Meyers also missed last Sunday’s game, but Pierce said the wideout will practice on Wednesday. Meyers, Tre Tucker, DJ Turner, and Tyreik McAllister are the receivers on the 53-man roster in Vegas.
Davante Adams will continue to wear the No. 17 jersey on his new team.
The Jets announced today that Adams is wearing No. 17, which is the same number he wore with both the Packers and the Raiders. (Adams wore No. 15 at Fresno State.)
Jets rookie wide receiver Malachi Corley, who had been No. 17, will switch to the No. 14 jersey.
There’s been no word on what Corley got to give up the number, but Adams, who has made about $130 million in his NFL career, likely made it worthwhile for Corley, who is in the first year of his four-year, $6 million rookie contract.
Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said on Tuesday that he was hopeful about having wide receiver Davante Adams in the lineup for Sunday’s game against the Steelers, but that it was too early to tell if that would be possible.
It didn’t take long for Ulbrich to come to a conclusion about Adams’s readiness. Ulbrich told reporters at a Wednesday press conference that he expects Adams to be in the lineup this weekend.
Adams was acquired in a trade with the Raiders on Tuesday and he did not play in either one of the Raiders’ last two games. Adams was listed with a hamstring injury, but the missed games coincided with his trade request and Adams said on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday that he’s good to go from a health standpoint.
The Jets offense is new to Adams, but he has experience with quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the Jets will bank on that making the acclimation process an easier one.
In the aftermath of the trade of Stefon Diggs, the Bills embraced the notion that they don’t need a No. 1 receiver. They wisely were willing to forget about the things they’d said when the opportunity came along to acquire a No. 1 receiver.
After “monitoring” Davante Adams, the Bills moved on Amari Cooper, getting him for a prorated base salary of $806,667 and a third-round pick plus a late-round swap.
It was the perfect counter to the Jets getting Adams. The Bills, with a two-game lead and the first of the head-to-head tiebreakers, add Cooper.
Unlike Adams, Cooper made it to the Pro Bowl in 2023, with 1,250 receiving yards. And while he has only 250 this season, he’s playing for a team that has the worst current starting quarterback in the NFL.
No, the Bills didn’t need a No. 1 receiver. But, as they’ll find out, it will be nice to have one. Especially as the postseason inevitably approaches.
And this is the kind of move that, if it works, could help the Bills get deeper than usual. Three years ago, they could have traded for Von Miller and signed Odell Beckham Jr. The Rams did instead, and they won a Super Bowl.
Making the right in-season move(s) at the right time ultimately can make a huge difference. The Bills traditionally have resisted even trying. This year, they’re rolling the dice. Sometimes, the only way to get to the top of the mountain is to take that kind of chance.
As agent Drew Rosenhaus explores potential trade destinations for holdout Jets defensive end Haason Reddick, there’s a lingering term from the trade that sent Reddick to New York that complicates the deal.
PFT has confirmed that the price the Jets will pay to the Eagles increases from a third-round pick in 2026 to a second-round pick in 2026, if the Jets re-trade Reddick to any NFC team. (That nugget was first reported on Tuesday by Josina Anderson.)
That will make the price for a trade to an NFC team (like the Lions) higher than it would be for an AFC team. Which also would make the NFC team less inclined to pay Reddick the kind of salary an AFC team would offer. Trade compensation and the player compensation combine to create a total price for the transaction; the more it costs to make the trade, the less the team will want to pay. And vice-versa.
Frankly, the entire exercise feels like an effort to let Rosenhaus and Reddick see what’s out there. Or, more accurately, what’s not out there. Once Reddick realizes there isn’t a better contractual offer elsewhere, Reddick might be ready to do a deal with the Jets.
This might be the best time to do a deal with the Jets. As one source observed on Tuesday, the trade for Davante Adams suggests that Jets owner Woody Johnson is determined to create the impression that he made the right decision by firing coach Robert Saleh.
That mindset could get Woody to pay Reddick more than he would have before Saleh was sent packing.
