Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams is on pace for 96 catches, 1,071 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns this season, so he has hardly been invisible through the first three games of the season.
The Raiders have lost all three games, however, and Adams hasn’t had the kind of impact that many expected when he joined the team in a trade this offseason. Opportunities play a role in that as Adams has been targeted 17 times in the last two weeks after getting 17 passes thrown his way in Week One.
That’s led to some thought that quarterback Derek Carr is working too hard to spread the ball around rather than getting the ball to the leading light of the receiving corps. Adams referenced that notion on Wednesday when he said “whatever everybody else is talking about has nothing to do with what’s actually going on” and that the team is figuring out the best ways to attack the coverages they’re seeing. Carr also rejected the notion that Adams has been a forgotten man in the offense.
“At the end of the day, I’m going to listen to Josh, and my progressions, and what he’s telling me in the game,” Carr said, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com. “We’re trying to set things up to get the ball in a certain place and it takes repetition. It takes time. This is only three games into us playing together, again. It hasn’t been all bad.”
As long as the results on the scoreboard remain bad, there will be questions about whether the Raiders are getting the most out of their most talented players so a big day from Adams in a winning effort would be a welcome development in Las Vegas.