Davante Adams Recalls His Draft Day Ahead of 2022 NFL Draft

The first round of the 2022 NFL Draft is now only a day away.

The day an NFL player is drafted goes down as one of the best days of his life. Every year when late April/early May rolls around, players around the league are brought back to the day their life was changed forever.

Raiders offseason acquisition Davante Adams might be the best wide receiver in the NFL, but his draft day, in particular, was a humbling start to his professional career.

The five-time Pro Bowler was drafted in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers. Raiders analyst Eric Allen caught up with Adams to discuss that day in May.

For Adams, the NFL wasn't particularly on his mind while he was receiving passes from Derek Carr at Fresno State.

"It was a whirlwind, man," Adams said. "I was young, I came out as a redshirt sophomore, so me and Derek [Carr], obviously we balled together at Fresno, and I didn't really think about the draft my whole last year, and we were both balling. We were just flowing. I was just thinking about having fun with my teammates, getting it in every week, and just staying present in the moment.

"I felt like that's one of the things that attributed to some of my success is just being laser-focused, locked in on what I had to do. So when the opportunity kind of showed up late in the season ... I was like, 'Oh, wow.' It actually made me not nervous, but it made me feel like I was happy that I was able to focus throughout the whole season and not get too far ahead of myself because I did feel a little bit more pressure, especially being a young cat coming out."

Adams had been disappointed to get passed up throughout the first round by teams who had shown interest in him.

"We get to the end [of the first round] I think at 28, I thought I was going to the Carolina Panthers," Adams said. "That's who talked to me the most. They pick Kelvin Benjamin."

Adams said he had only immediate family and closest acquaintances over to await the pick the following day.

"We all wore black because it's everyone's funeral who didn't pick me Day 1," Adams said. "And then you know, obviously I get picked to go to the Packers, and I was ecstatic, but I was still -- I think that gave me a little chip on my shoulder because I felt like a lot of the guys that got picked ahead of me, they weren't better than me or hadn't proven more to be better than me."

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