‘He’s a Raider’: GM says Adams won’t be traded

Paul Gutierrez, ESPN Staff WriterFeb 27, 2024, 02:19 PM ET
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Attention any NFL general manager thinking of inquiring on the availability of three-time first-team All-Pro receiver Davante Adams: “He’s a Raider,” new Las Vegas Raiders general manager Tom Telesco said at the combine Tuesday.

With those words, Telesco essentially shut down the prospect of entertaining trade talks for the six-time Pro Bowler.

Adams, himself, appeared to be bullish on his future with the Raiders when he told ESPN during Super Bowl week in Las Vegas it was “definitely exciting” to again work with new Raiders offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, with whom he broke into the NFL in 2014 with the Green Bay Packers.

“He’s the type of coach that’s open-minded … he’s going to be open to hearing things from the veteran players that know how this thing works and the best way to do things,” said Adams, who had 103 receptions last season but his lowest receiving yards per catch average (11.1) since 2015, and his fewest TD catches (8) since 2019, when he played in 12 games.

Getsy was an offensive quality control coach with the Packers in 2014 and 2015 before becoming their receivers coach in 2016 and 2017. He was Mississippi State’s O.C. in 2018 and returned to Green Bay as the Packers’ quarterbacks coach in 2019. He served as their quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator in 2020 and 2021 before leaving to become the Chicago Bears‘ offensive coordinator in 2022. He was fired by the Bears in January.

“Open-mindedness and, like I said, that innovation to the offense and a good run-pass balance,” Adams said of Getsy. “And that’s what I’m used to, that West Coast style. Going to be fun getting to work on a new system, [yet] something that’s a little bit more familiar.”

Telesco, hired on Jan. 24 to join coach Antonio Pierce, also said he did not “anticipate” using the franchise tag this offseason, adding that he wanted to “establish a philosophy at the Raiders that ‘we like to re-sign our own.'”

Josh Jacobs, a first-team All-Pro running back in 2022 who suffered through a career-worst season last year, is a pending free agent.

“It doesn’t bother me that I didn’t draft him,” Telesco said of Jacobs, a first-round pick in 2019 by then-coach Jon Gruden and then-GM Mike Mayock who was franchise tagged by the regime of GM Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels last year.

“He’s a Raider and he was drafted by the Raiders, so he’s a high-level player. So yeah, we’re going to explore pretty hard to see if we can bring him back here and kind of go from there. But as far as a player, running game, passing game, pass protection, he can really help you win games.”

Jacobs responded to being tagged last year by sitting out the entirety of Las Vegas’ offseason program, training camp and the exhibition season. He returned on an adjusted tag that paid him $11.791 million, up from the original price of $10.091 million and finished with career lows in rushing yards (805), yards per carry (3.5), touchdowns (6) and games played (13) after missing the final four games with a quad injury. A tag on Jacobs this year is estimated to be more than $14.149 million.

And while both Pierce and Raiders owner Mark Davis have called Jacobs the heart and soul of the team, second-year back Zamir White blossomed in Jacobs’ absence, rushing for a combined 397 yards and a TD while catching nine passes for 60 yards in those games.

“There’s a lot of backs that are available this year, so I guess it remains to be seen what other people think,” Telesco said. “But the talent pool at that position in free agency is relatively high.”