Packers wide receiver Davante Adams recently discussed his future with the team, a future that may include the franchise tag. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com hears from several sources that Green Bay is indeed preparing to use the tag — a tool the club has not utilized since 2010 — on its star wideout.
Adams, 29, is playing out the final year of the four-year, $58MM extension he signed in December 2017. That proved to be a terrific investment for the Packers, and given the success that Adams has enjoyed over the life of that contract, he is now setting his sights even higher. He wants to be the highest-paid receiver in football, which, in terms of AAV, would mean a deal worth upwards of $27MM per season. The franchise tag, meanwhile, will cost about $20MM.
Once the season is over, Green Bay will have a great deal of work to do just to get under the salary cap, and carrying a $20MM charge on the books for an Adams tag will be challenging. A long-term contract would of course help to limit Adams’ 2022 cap hit, but it will be interesting to see if Adams even wants such a contract from the Packers at this point. Though he said that the club’s plans vis-a-vis Aaron Rodgers will not be the “end-all, be-all” in terms of his own future in Wisconsin, he did concede that Rodgers’ status will be a key consideration for him. And if the Packers move on from their franchise signal-caller — Rapoport suggests that there will be a resolution in that regard fairly early in the offseason — Adams may not want to stick around for the long haul.
Indeed, after Adams broke off contract talks in July, he did not, according to Rapoport, try to reopen them (even though he was reportedly happy to consider any pitches the team wished to make). If the Packers are willing to give him the record-breaking deal he wants, he might be hard-pressed to turn it down, regardless of what the club’s QB situation looks like. But if Green Bay parts way with Rodgers and does not break the bank for Adams, the Fresno State product might risk a statistical downturn in 2022 in the hopes of hitting the open market in 2023.
Rapoport also passes along an update on Rodgers. He confirms that retaining their three-time MVP is the Packers’ top priority, and the front office is hopeful that the regular conversations it has had with him has gotten the relationship to a point where Rodgers will want to stay (video link).
Prediction: Adams and Rodgers will both have their worst seasons in years if they’re not with each other next season.
Maybe the Pack is on to something. They made Rodgers angry last off season and he’s having another season worthy of MVP consideration. I’m pretty sure franchising Adams would anger him a lot…
Pack GM is great at one thing; making his stars unhappy.
He won’t sign it. Force the team’s hand. Its almost like a no-trade clause. Because if he isn’t under contract, he can decline being traded to a team he doesn’t wan to go to. As an example, if the Jets offered their 1st round pick, GB would jump at it; but not Adams.
I think he’ll sign it, but it would SEVERELY hurt his chances of signing an actual deal later. I think it also hurts the small chance that Rodgers returns that appeared when the Packers made some moves to be competitive.
Rodgers’ contract clearing the books next year is the only chance the Packers have to appease Adams anyway. Either Rodgers signs a lesser deal or moves on, but Adams will want that huge contract from Green Bay. I think if Adams left he’d accept a smaller contract, but only to work with Rodgers on another team. If he can’t work with Rodgers, and especially if he has to stay in Green Bay, he’ll want the money.
Good points. We’ll see. Everything I have read, Adams wants to $27m a year like Hopkins has. The tag would be $7m below that.
The tag doesn’t mean he either signs it or not, correct? It allows the 2 sides to negotiate on a long term deal WITHOUT fear of him signing elsewhere and getting nothing in return.
It may also extend both GB and Adams decision-making time frames to see what happens with Rodgers (although that situation reportedly will be settled “quickly” once GB’s last game has been played), and possibly even time for GB to try and figure out the cap mess.
The player does still have to sign the tag. It’s technically a contract, albeit one exclusively prohibiting negotiations with another team.
29 year old receivers don’t get record breaking deals, just saying. That’s a pipe dream he’s holding onto if that’s what he wants
The Packers might offer Adams a very sweet two-year deal but $27m/year for one wide receiver dooms a franchise to failure. DeAndre Hopkins could be paid because QB Kyler Murray is on his rookie deal. You can’t keep both QB and WR1 and win when QB is $30m+ and WR1 is $27m+. Who is going to block for you? An all-rookie offensive line?
I’m not advocating for anyone to pay a pair $30 and $27 million..but have you seen GB’s o-line? Or all the changes they’ve made this year? Started 2 rookies early in the year, plus a second year LG, lost 1 rookie to injury and replaced him with a career backup, lost Jenkins and filled the LT hole with Yosh Nijman, and now have Bahktiari’s stunt double at RT.
It’s not all rookies, but it sure isn’t the early 90’s Dallas Bulldozers either.
And they’re $40 million over next year’s cap anyway, so I don’t know how they’d find room for anyone (not sure how much dead money there’d be pulling the plug on Z and Bahktiari’s deals).
Maybe he can quit on the packers like Allen Robinson did on the Bears after he got tagged
I’m not even sure how GB gets under the cap without Adam’s.