All offseason long, the Las Vegas Raiders have been subject to trade speculation, with all of it centered around star wide receiver Davante Adams.
Most of that has speculation has involved the New York Jets and Adams' good buddy, Aaron Rodgers, but one NFL analyst is drawing up a trade that sends Adams to the Buffalo Bills instead.
ESPN's Seth Walder is the one drawing up the play here and he has the Raiders trading Adams to the Bills for a second-round pick in 2025. Here's his thoughts:
My lack of belief in the Raiders is a big part of why I think they should make this trade. Perhaps I'll be proved wrong, but ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI) gives them a 17% chance to reach the playoffs and less than a 1% chance to reach the Super Bowl, let alone win it. Adams is 31 years old and due to make only $17.5 million in cash this season. He'll not only be older next year (and might be showing some initial signs of decline), but he'll also be scheduled to make $36.25 million at that point. If the Raiders don't deal Adams before the trade deadline this year, they might never be able to trade him.
The rational move would have been to do this last year or earlier this offseason, but there's still time for the Raiders to salvage value from Adams. They should move him now for draft capital that will help the team down the road, even though Adams' trade value has already regressed a bit.
For the Bills, this makes absolute sense. Their receiving corps. from the past few years was absolutely gutted this offseason, with the biggest departure being Josh Allen's No. 1 receiver, Stefon Diggs. Adams would be a perfect replacement to give Buffalo the surefire No. 1 receiver it needs.
But it takes two to tango, as they say, and there has been no indication the Raiders are interested in moving Adams right now. In fact, general manager Tom Telesco recently pointed to the statement of Adams' agents when asked if there was any chance Adams would be dealt before the season starts.
"This is baseless, unfounded speculation, and Davante is expected to be with the Raiders as there has been absolutely no trade talk -- period," the statement read.
It's very clear that the Raiders are going to try and compete this season, thus it makes no sense to deal Adams right now. That said, if things go off the rails and Las Vegas is bad near the deadline, an Adams trade would likely be on the table.
