Here’s Final Tale of the Tape of Davante Adams Trade

Looking beyond just draft picks, here is what the Green Bay Packers received from the Las Vegas Raiders in the blockbuster Davante Adams trade.

Author:
Bill Huber
Updated:
May 3, 2022 9:36 AM EDT
Original:
May 3, 2022

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – All the blanks of the Green Bay Packers’ trade of Davante Adams have been filled in.

In March, the Packers sent their All-Pro receiver to the Las Vegas Raiders for a pair of draft picks, No. 22 of the first round and No. 53 of the second round.

On Thursday, general manager Brian Gutekunst drafted Georgia linebacker Quay Walker at No. 22. On Friday, Gutekunst packaged his second-round picks – the one obtained from the Raiders and their own at No. 59 – in a trade with Minnesota to get receiver Christian Watson.

So, here are the basic details: The Packers traded Adams and a second-round pick to draft Walker and Watson.

Looking deeper, there’s also a financial element. By trading Adams, the Packers removed the $20.145 million franchise tag from their bloated salary cap. Ultimately, Adams signed an extension with the Raiders that included a Year 1 cap charge of $8.17 million. Putting aside Adams’ desire to be traded to the Raiders and using that contract as a hypothetical extension to stay in Green Bay, the real financial savings created by trading Adams was $11.975 million.

According to OverTheCap.com, the Packers are $14.05 million under the salary cap. Once they sign their rookie class, they’ll be $8.053 million beneath the cap. Additional funds will be needed in September to build a practice squad and for in-season roster moves.

When Adams was still on the roster, a source said the Packers were out of the running on cornerback Rasul Douglas. Once Adams was traded, the Packers re-signed Douglas.

So, an argument could be made that this is the full transaction: Adams and a second-round pick for Douglas, Walker and Watson.

Who won the trade? That’s an unanswerable question, obviously. Walker and Watson haven’t even put on a jersey and practiced, let alone played a game or season.

Adams, coming off a series of dominant seasons, will turn 30 late this season. Included in his five-year, $140 million contract with Las Vegas are near-future cap charges of $30.5 million in 2023 and $21.3 million in 2024. There will be substantial dead-cap charges if they move on at that point.

From a pure production standpoint, it’s impossible to argue that swapping Adams for Watson (and veteran Sammy Watkins and draft picks Romeo Doubs and Samari Toure) is a positive. But if Walker joins De’Vondre Campbell to provide a game-wrecking pair of inside linebackers, Douglas shows last year wasn’t a lightning-in-a-bottle fluke and Watson reaches his prodigious potential, the Packers will feel good about the end results of a franchise-altering trade.