The New York Jets pulled off a big trade with the Las Vegas Raiders for Davanted Adams. Peter Klein breaks it down from both team's perspectives. He also gives his thoughts on it from a Fantasy Football perspective.
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00:00So, apparently Devontae Adams can only play with quarterbacks that Devontae Adams has
00:09already played with, as he has been shipped to the New York Jets in exchange for a conditional
00:14second round pick.
00:16The conditions on that pick, if Devontae Adams is on the Jets' starting roster for the
00:23AFC Championship game or for the Super Bowl, it becomes a second round pick, or if he is,
00:28I believe, first or second team All-Pro, which, I mean, right now, none of those seem
00:33super likely, but the Championship one seems much more likely than Adams making it to an
00:39All-Pro team.
00:40So, obviously a lot of different ways to go about this one.
00:43We'll start with what it means for the Jets, who are coming off of an extremely disappointing
00:49loss against the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football.
00:55And they are obviously in win-now mode.
00:58When you go out and acquire Aaron Rodgers, it is championship or bust time, right?
01:03Like, that's just, that's what it is.
01:05That is the world that you enter when you have a 40-year-old quarterback and you have
01:09made the moves that you have made.
01:11And this team has not been good enough offensively, and it really does seem like things are starting
01:18to get into a bit of a groove with Rodgers and Garrett Wilson.
01:22It still seems a little bit labored with getting him the football, and he still needs
01:26to be the guy, and now you have a very good number two in Devontae Adams, albeit one who
01:33is certainly on the decline, and one who is certainly starting to fade as the years kind
01:40of go on.
01:41I still think he is a really good receiver, and I do think that Aaron Rodgers is the best
01:46quarterback for him, because with Adams, one of the things that has got him in trouble,
01:51well, not in trouble, but one of the ways that the Raiders were unable to use him, I
01:56guess effectively, is Jimmy Garoppolo is not a risk-taking quarterback.
02:04And it certainly doesn't seem like Aiden O'Connell is at this point either.
02:08You kind of need to be open for them to think that you're open.
02:11Devontae Adams is not a great separator at this point in his career.
02:14What he is, is someone who is huge, and someone who is very good at catching footballs, and
02:20someone who is very good at winning those one-on-one battles.
02:23And so when you have quarterbacks who are a little bit reluctant to throw balls into
02:27coverage, and you have a guy who always looks like he is in coverage, it is just not a good
02:31mesh.
02:32But Aaron Rodgers has worked with Devontae Adams enough to know that even when Devontae
02:36— if Devontae's in one-on-one, or one-on-one, sorry, he's never really covered.
02:42Like, he's kind of always open.
02:44And he is someone who is so good at the contested catch that they will be able to go out and
02:52make a play, and be able to step up for this team, and kind of take care of those catches.
03:04And so I think that there is a — I think there's a real chance that this actually
03:13works out okay.
03:16And they are going to — it's tough, because I think this will improve them.
03:24But I don't think that this is going to be a, like, okay, well now everything is fixed.
03:30Because there's still problems.
03:31They got run all over by a backup running back last night.
03:35And there are still problems with missing kicks, and all of those sorts of things.
03:38And also, it doesn't matter — it doesn't matter what kind of, I guess — it doesn't
03:48matter what kind of players you bring in, if the offensive play-calling isn't good
03:51enough, the offensive play-calling isn't good enough.
03:53So this is not going to completely take care of the biggest issue that this team has, but
04:01it does make them a better football team than they were before.
04:04It gives them now a better option than Alan Lazard as a No. 2, and another playmaker for
04:10an offense that desperately needed another playmaker in their offense.
04:14So I do think that this does make the Jets a little bit better of a football team.
04:18On the Raiders' side of things, this was not handled very well.
04:23And, like, I think once they made the decision to let Derek Carr go, I think that you need
04:30to also make the decision to let Devonta Adams go.
04:33A, you brought him in there specifically because he wanted to play with Derek Carr.
04:37And so when you send his guy out, you're going to have probably a not overly enthused
04:42wide receiver on your hands.
04:45And then, it was just — it was clear that they didn't have a — I mean, they went
04:49with Jimmy Garoppolo, so I think you were trying to convince yourselves that you were
04:52going to be a winning football team, but when that didn't happen, Adams should have been
04:56the first one out of there.
04:58Instead, they turn what could have been maybe a guy you got a first round pick for, for
05:02a guy that it is maybe a second if everything goes your way.
05:06So the overall handling of the Adams situation was another in a very long line of very poor
05:14handled situations for the Vegas Raiders franchise.
05:19And now, it just — I don't know where they go from here.
05:26This is not a very talented roster, and it is a coach that, on a pretty consistent basis,
05:33feels like he is in over his head now.
05:35And so, it's — you are basically starting over, and that is why you are getting a lot
05:40of the rumors of the Detroit Lions looking at a Max Crosby in terms of going out and
05:46making a trade.
05:47Like, there's just — there isn't a whole lot of value on this Raider roster right now,
05:51and it kind of feels like you need to start over out there in Las Vegas.
05:55In terms of the actual trade for 2024 here on August 15th, I think they got about as
06:01good a value as you could have from the Jets.
06:03There was rumors that the Chiefs would have gone up to a second to get Devontae Adams.
06:08If that is the case, then this is a bit of a miss, and we have talked about it before.
06:13I don't think anyone would be going after the trade of Adams to the Kansas City Chiefs
06:17and say, oh, well, now the Chiefs are better than the Raiders.
06:21This is what really puts it over the top.
06:22Like, no, that's not it.
06:24The whole, oh, you can't trade him in division is so dumb, I think, in 2024.
06:29So if that actually ends up being the case, then whatever.
06:33But you still have at least a path to a second-round pick.
06:35It frees up a ton of cap space.
06:37Now, the Raiders had a ton of cap space last year, spent it on a defensive tackle who's
06:40now hurt.
06:41But, again, they are in a spot now where they can go out and try to make a move.
06:46But if you are looking at what the core foundation is of the Vegas Raiders right now, it's kind
06:53of Max Crosby and nothing.
06:54Like, there are guys who are good, you know, like Spillane is, I think, a really good linebacker.
07:00And feels like someone who is just kind of, they've cloned, he's one of those guys that
07:03feels like he's been cloned.
07:04Because he is just in, it feels like he's in four different spots at once.
07:08But again, like, after that, there isn't a ton.
07:11And they have a couple Gadgety-type guys on offense, but like, all three running backs
07:14kind of suck.
07:15Neither of the quarterbacks have shown that they can be any good at all.
07:18Like, this is just, it's a bad, bad, bad football team.
07:22From a fantasy football standpoint now, as we kind of transition into the fantasy discussion,
07:27I do think that Devontae Adams still has significant fantasy value.
07:32A lot of the value that he had coming into the year was that he was going to be the number
07:35one guy on this offense.
07:37And now he's not.
07:38But he is going to, I think, while we are not big fans of the Jets offense in general,
07:42I do think that it is going to be a, um, I do think it is going to be a step up for this
07:49team from what the Raiders were.
07:52And also, we have seen a lot of teams focus a lot of their coverage over on Garrett Wilson.
07:58And so two things can happen here, obviously.
08:00One, that's going to continue to happen, and Devontae Adams can feast.
08:03Or Adams goes there, and you at least have to pay a little bit more attention to him
08:07than you would Alan freaking Lazard, and so you can't just load up on one guy, and that
08:12kind of helps both of them out.
08:14I would assume it is going to be more that one, that it's not just going to be everything
08:19focus over on Wilson, and then Devontae Adams does his thing.
08:22For Alan Lazard, like, I don't think there's any fantasy value left at all, quite frankly.
08:28But I do think that for Garrett Wilson owners, this is a positive.
08:32And for Devontae Adams owners, he's going to be playing now, because I do think that
08:36that hamstring will all of a sudden have healed up.
08:39Which is nothing short of miraculous, really.
08:42And so I think that that is a really good opportunity now for Devontae Adams fantasy
08:48owners to actually have this guy, who has a connection with a quarterback, go out there
08:53and maybe ball out a little bit.
08:55So I do think that it is kind of positive for those guys.
08:57And for the Raiders dudes, you've been doing it for a bit now, like Brock Bowers is in
09:01every replay, Jacoby Myers, when healthy, kind of works into that area as well.
09:05We did see the downside of some of the other options in Vegas so far, and even Aaron Rodgers
09:12kind of bumps up a little bit more in terms of his fantasy value.
09:15But overall, it is a, it's a good trade and it makes the Jets a better football team.
09:21But it does not address the real needs.
09:23And yeah, like Toxic said, Devontae Adams went from a 2-4 team to another 2-4 team.
09:28And like, you see people on social media, it's like, he wanted to go to a place where
09:33it was like a guaranteed contender with a long, proud history, and you went to the Jets?
09:39So it's, it feels like a bit of a, ugh.
09:44Because there are so many better options, it felt like, just for the overall enjoyment
09:49of football.
09:50Like, the Jets needed a No. 2 receiver, he comes in as a No. 2 receiver.
09:52But like, him on the Ravens would have been amazing.
09:55Him on the Chiefs would have been unbelievable, right?
09:58Him on the Bills, same thing.
10:01Even like the, I was gonna say, it wouldn't be the same, but it would be an upgrade on
10:05what the Cowboys are trotting out there on a weekly basis as their No. 2 wide receiver.
10:09Like, they need skilled position players.
10:11And so this was one where it just kind of felt like, he is an upgrade over what they
10:15have, but it's not necessarily how they would use him.
10:18So it's, it's a weird one, but I do think it is kind of a good thing there for the New
10:23York Jets overall.
10:24I mean, they brought in a talented player today.
10:26It's something that they needed to do.