Aaron Rodgers Betting On Himself As Davante Adams Departs

So, it turned out the 2021 season was the ‘Last Dance’ for Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams. The quarterback and wide receiver pairing that has served as the core of a dominant Green Bay Packers offense was broken up on Thursday when Adams was traded to the Las Vegas Raiders.

The blockbuster trade, which saw the Packers receive the Raiders’ first and second-round picks this year, was just the latest stunning move in an extremely dramatic offseason, and it was especially surprising as it came on the heels of Aaron Rodgers signing a contract to remain with Green Bay on a deal worth $50 million annually.

Given Rodgers’ affinity with Adams, it was assumed the Packers – despite their financial constraints – would find a way to keep the pair together.

It appeared they were ready to pay Adams the money to do so, with NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reporting the Packers offered more than the five-year, $141.5 million deal Adams will receive from Las Vegas, but that the receiver rejected Green Bay to fulfil a “lifelong dream” of playing for the Raiders.

Rapoport added that, when Rodgers was negotiating his deal, he knew Adams would never play for the Packers again.

Any Adams departure without Rodgers’ sign-off would likely have done significant damage to the Packers’ seemingly improved relationship with their MVP quarterback, yet his decision to remain with the team knowing they were set to be shorn of their best receiver represents a significant gamble on his part.

The Packers have fallen short in the playoffs despite the remarkable rapport Rodgers and Adams, widely viewed as the best receiver in football, enjoyed. With that connection severed, the Packers are unquestionably a worse football team.

In essence, it is a move that piles the pressure on Rodgers to further elevate those around him, and his willingness to continue as a Packer while being aware of Adams’ exit represents a substantial bet on himself by the four-time MVP.

That Rodgers is willing to back himself to deliver even without Adams is understandable given his performance over the last two years.

Rodgers leads the NFL in Ben Baldwin’s Expected Points Added + Completion Percentage Over Expectation composite metric over the last two seasons, meaning that – since the beginning of the 2020 campaign – no quarterback in the league has done a better job of blending efficiency and accuracy.

He has achieved that feat while attempting the seventh-most throws that travelled at least 20 yards in the air in each of the last two seasons, according to Fantasy Pros.

His ability to run an efficient offense while continuing to demonstrate outstanding ball placement and take an aggressive approach to consistently offer big-play upside to the Packers’ attack enabled Rodgers to do what only three players had done before him and win back-to-back MVPs. It did not, however, yield a title.

The final years of Rodgers’ career in Green Bay are solely about atoning for those previous missed opportunities and padding a Hall of Fame resume with additional Lombardi Trophies that his consistently play has unquestionably merited.

Minus Adams, though, Rodgers may have to rely on one of what is an uninspiring cast of veteran free agents including Julio Jones, Jarvis Landry and Will Fuller and a rookie from a deep draft class at the wide receiver position to fill the void left by Adams.

Regardless of the quality of who the Packers acquire, replicating Adams’ influence is unlikely to be an achievable task for the new-look Green Bay receiving corps.

Instead, the onus will be on Rodgers to find a way mitigate the impact of Adams’ departure. Even for a player who has made a career out of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat by navigating his way through seemingly impossible situations, that may well be the greatest challenge of his storied career.