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Perfect Packers trade proposal for Davante Adams reunion

Here is the perfect Packers trade proposal to bring Davante Adams home.

When news broke that the Raiders and Davante Adams were rapidly approaching a split, with Las Vegas reportedly open to a trade package centered around a second-round pick for the former three-time All-Pro, it sent shockwaves across the NFL landscape.

Would Adams end up with the New York Jets, reuniting with Aaron Rodgers for the second time in their NFL careers after a fantastic run in Green Bay? Or would he instead go to a team like the New England Patriots, the Washington Commanders, or the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have all been looking to upgrade their wide receivers’ room for the better part of the 2024 calendar year, with all three names heavily featured in the Brandon Aiyuk reporting earlier this year? Certainly the Raiders wouldn’t trade Adams to the Chiefs, right? Even if getting a first-round pick from the Chiefs for a player who is only getting older by the season could turn into a textbook example of a team selling early on a player while they still have incredible value.



Well, what about the Packers? Sure, they once traded away Adams in the pursuit of a soft reset, but Jordan Love has since become one of the top young guns in the NFL. Factor in that his team is currently 2-2 despite being without Love for the past few games and adding an elite player like Adams to the roster might just be what the doctor ordered to get Green Bay over the top and out of an NFC North division headlined by the undefeated Minnesota Vikings, and the timing might be right for a Wisconsin reunion before an incredibly consequential season comes to a conclusion.

Factor in the team’s asset pool, which includes both players and picks and the opportunity is there for the Packers to present an offer on par with any other team in the NFL, with the potential for an Adams addition to produce an oversized return on investment more so than almost any other player potentially on the block. If the Packers want to truly go all-in on their young core, they need to offer up Christian Watson and a second-round pick and get this thing done stat.



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The Green Bay Packers’ offense is a WR1 away from being dangerous

To Brian Gutekunst’s credit, the Packers have done a very good job of building a team organically around Love as their franchise quarterback, procuring quality players like Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, Tucker Kraft, and Christian Watson in the draft while supplementing the group with players like Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney in free agency.

As crazy as it may sound, of the players on the Packers’ roster who were drafted, which is 44, only seven weren’t drafted by the Packers, signifying that the team has either truly mastered the art of player scouting or that they feel good enough in their coaching staff to know that they will be able to develop whichever players they bring to town regardless of their college pedigree.



Or maybe, just maybe, the Packers haven’t found the “right” player to spend their money on, with Gutekunst feeling rather selecting about his team this early in their process.

Technically, if Green Bay brought back Adams, they would get to have their cake and eat it too, as they already know what kind of player the Raiders Pro Bowler can be, as he was on the team for the vast majority of his career, and they wouldn’t even have to mess with their streak of homegrown success stories, as they could trade Watson, a player who fits what the Raiders like plus a second-round pick to Las Vegas and still technically have 44 Packers draftees on the roster.

Now sure, is Adams technically on the same timeline as Love? No, at 31, Adams would somehow be the second-oldest player on the Raiders’ roster, if you can believe it, but he should still have a few years left as a premier player before things truly fall off, and during that window, the Packers are going to be firmly in win-now mode.



With a slew of WR2s and WR3s already on the roster next to a legit top-10 quarterback and an elite running back in Jacobs, the Packers really do have a chance to make noise in the playoffs both this season but also for years to come; if they can add a true WR1 to make Love’s life easier, it could take the top off of the team’s ceiling heading into the future.

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Christian Watson fits what the Las Vegas Raiders look for at WR

Though he’s been gone for years now, the late, great Al Davis had one philosophy that has stuck with the Raiders organization for decades now: you can’t teach speed.

Now granted, this philosophy hasn’t always worked out, as they famously drafted Darrius Heyward-Bey over Percy Harvin, Jacoby Ford over tight end Dennis Pitta, and Henry Ruggs III over Jerry Jeudy, CeeDee Lamb, and Justin Jefferson, but in a league where everyone is looking for a competitive advantage, few plays can impact an outcome more significantly than a deep bomb down the field for a touchdown.



Can the Raiders get by with what they have, with collegiate DJ Turner hopefully developing into a legit deep threat with his 4.26 speed? Potentially so, but gosh, adding a receiver like Watson would seriously supercharge their process heading into the future, as few players possess his unique combination of size and speed.

Standing 6-foot-4, 208 pounds with legit 4.36 speed, Watson has recorded 1,113 yards and 13 touchdowns while averaging 15 yards per reception as a pro over his 27-game career. Sure, he’s not a “complete” wide receiver, as he hasn’t yet mastered a full NFL route tree, but his play has been impressive enough to line him up for a big-money extension in the not-too-distant future, even if it doesn’t quite reach the level of Adams’ current deal.

If the Packers aren’t sold on Watson as ever being more than a supplemental player but believe that Adams can be that guy for the next few years, then surrendering the services of the North Dakota State product in the pursuit of a true WR1 upgrade might just be worth the pursuit.



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The Packers need to be players in a Davante Adams trade

So, should the Packers trade for Adams? Well, that depends on whether or not they believe any of the players on their roster have a true WR1 upside in the relatively near future.

If yes, then the Packers should line up the assets needed to make the deal, giving the Raiders Watson and a second-round pick to really grease the wheels and get the proverbial ball into the endzone. If not? Well, let’s hope they’re right, as if they aren’t, then goodness, it will stink to watch Adams shine in another uniform for years to come.