The comments made by Raiders receiver Davante Adams regarding his communications with Raiders quarterback Derek Carr before the trade that sent Adams to Las Vegas from Green Bay caused some to wonder whether Carr may have engaged in tampering. He didn’t.
Players can’t tamper, with one specific exception. If Carr engaged in the communications at the direction or behest of the Raiders, he would have become their representative, as that term is used in the tampering policy. Even if that happened (and there’s no reason to think it did in this case), good luck proving it.
Still, it’s clear that Adams and Carr worked together to get together.
“It’s something we didn’t entertain during the season,” Adams told reporters on Tuesday. “Once we wrapped up the season, started communicating a little bit. . . . As things progressed a little bit more, obviously we communicate multiple times a week as it is, aside from even trying to team up. So once we got to a point where it was something that could be realistic now, it’s not just a thought, we started trying to put a little bit of a plan together. And obviously I was still back going back with Green Bay at that point and still weighing my options.”
Even if there was never any effort by the Raiders to commission Carr to lure Adams to Las Vegas (again, good luck proving if there was), Adams’s former quarterback possibly is feeling a little miffed that Adams was working so closely with Carr to leave, instead of working with Aaron Rodgers to stay.
But Adams may have wanted to get away from the year-to-year uncertainty that has invaded Rodgers’s tenure with the Packers. Also, it’s fair to wonder whether Adams has seen enough from Jordan Love in two seasons together to conclude that, whenever Rodgers goes, the passing game in Green Bay won’t be what it’s been.
