Davante Adams turned down more money from the Packers and requested a trade to the Raiders instead. The All-Pro receiver confirmed last month he wanted to reunite with his best friend, Derek Carr, and move closer to his native California.
Carr then agreed to an extension that fully guaranteed him only $24.9 million at signing, a structure that allows the Raiders to “keep everybody together and really have continuity, have something to build on.”
Adams and Carr played together at Fresno State, so both have dreamed of teaming up again in the NFL.
Carr told Anthony Galaviz of the Fresno Bee it was perfect timing for the trade to happen.
“That’s something that we always talked about,” Carr said. “We dreamed of that and then when it became closer to reality, I went all in and he did, too. It’s something that we both just know where we’re at in our careers.”
The Bulldogs won a Mountain West title with the stars, and Adams ended up catching 233 receptions for 3,301 yards and 38 touchdowns in two seasons.
“It doesn’t promise that we can repeat what we’ve done,” Carr said. “It does give us an opportunity to play together again, and it’s exciting. We’re both fired up about it. We’ve both been working really hard to make sure that we’re not just good again; we want to be as good as we can possibly be, but that takes a lot of work, and that takes a lot of routes that he has to run, a lot of balls that I’ve got to throw, and we’ll see where it takes us. But we’re excited to be on this journey together again.”
For the first time since 2013, Carr and Adams will play together. It remains to be seen if they can find what Adams had with Aaron Rodgers, but Carr hopes “we can turn it into something that people will be happy to watch again.”
