Adams’ Silence Speaks Volumes on Potential Franchise Tag
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Contract talks between the Green Bay Packers and Davante Adams ended before the start of training camp and reportedly haven’t resumed. Earlier this week, NFL Network reported the Packers might use the franchise tag to retain the league’s premier receiver.
That decision would not sit well with Adams, who bit his tongue answering that question in the public forum that is a live-streamed Zoom interview session on Wednesday.
“I’m not sure,” Adams said when asked how he’d handle that decision. “I’m not sure how to answer that safely right now. So, we’ll just cross that bridge when we get to it. I’ll just say that. I like to be professional on here.”
Using the tag on Adams is much, much easier said than done. According to OverTheCap.com, the Packers are a staggering $48.2 million over the 2022 salary cap. And that’s without Adams under contract and on the ledger. The projected cost of tagging Adams would be about $19.1 million, according to OTC. Adding Adams’ contract to the Packers’ cap would push them to $67.3 million in the red.
The Packers entered last offseason about $27 million over the cap. General manager Brian Gutekunst restructured every contract under the sun to get beneath the 2021 cap and re-sign running back Aaron Jones. Doing so meant shoving a lot of 2021 salary-cap dollars into 2022. So, the problem is enormous, and tagging Adams might be impossible even with an aggressive contract extension for quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the release of several veterans (notably Za’Darius Smith) and losing just about every other upcoming free agent.
The logical thing would have been extending Adams this past offseason, which would have created cap flexibility for this season and ensured one of the best players in the NFL would be with the team for the long haul.
But that didn’t happen. Adams wants to be the highest-paid receiver in the league, a right he has earned through his dominance the past four seasons.
Three contracts have set the standard at the position. In terms of average pay, Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins’ two-year contract is worth $27.25 million. In terms of guaranteed money, Tennessee’s Julio Jones’ three-year contract is worth $66 million and includes $64 million guaranteed. Jones is a distant second in average pay at $22 million. In terms of total dollars, Dallas’ Amari Cooper’s five-year contract is worth $100 million.
It is the Hopkins contract that is the sticking point, a source said last summer. The Packers might have feared the long-term impact of handing, say, a four-year, $112 million contract ($28 million average) to a receiver who turned 29 on Christmas Eve. And if Rodgers isn’t here in 2022 – a distinct possibility, especially when the Packers and Adams were talking in early summer – what would be the point of having the highest-paid receiver in the game?
So, an offseason of intrigue revolving around the future Hall of Fame quarterback and the future Hall of Fame receiver awaits.
During training camp, Adams said “that’s not going to happen” when asked if he’d take less if he knew Rodgers would be in Green Bay for the long term, too.
“What other profession do you take less than what you have earned? That’s not how it goes,” Adams said. “The fans may see it different in certain ways, and I’m sure there’s a lot of fans that see it the same way that myself, my family, my agent, and most of the league sees it.
“I’m not complaining about it. At the end of the day, I’m not poor right now. You know, I’ll be OK to get through and go and try to win a Super Bowl again. And so that’s my main focus now. The offseason was working out and trying to come to an agreement, but we weren’t able to do that so now it’s kind of time to lock in. I have earned the right to be paid the highest in the league.”
Adams said he didn’t want to be bothered by extension talks during the season, though that’s why he’s got an agent – Frank Bauer, in this case – to do the talking.
Adams has had a sensational career. Among receivers since the start of the 2016 season, Adams is No. 1 in the NFL with 575 receptions (25 more than Hopkins), No. 1 with 7,137 yards (136 more than Jones) and No. 1 with 69 touchdowns (11 more than Mike Evans). Obviously, having Rodgers as his quarterback helps, but it’s also true that having Adams had helped Rodgers. They are one of the greatest duos in NFL history.
This season, Adams broke his own franchise single-season record for receptions, and he needs 22 yards to break Jordy Nelson’s record for most receiving yards. Moreover, Adams has become a revered leader and a face-of-the-franchise type of person.
“Every so often, you get generational players where those people do things a certain way,” Adams said during camp. “It’s not just about what goes on on the field. We invest a lot in the community here, everything. I’ve never been arrested. I’m not out here getting in bar fights and a bunch of stuff like that. Could be doing a lot of these things and making it tough, but I feel like we make it really easy for an organization like the Packers to respect that and go about their business in the right way.”
