Adams To Jets: Davante Adams Traded To New York Jets (Fantasy Impact)
Well, there you have it. Sometimes rampant internet speculation IS right. Per Ian Rappoport, following their loss on Monday Night Football, Davante Adams has been traded to the New York Jets from the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Jets will go all in on winning now with Aaron Rodgers’ former teammate Davante Adams joining Breece Hall, Garrett Wilson and former Packer Allen Lazard on this offense. Obviously, the trade has big-time NFL implications as the Raiders look to the future and the Jets focus on the present.
But there are also fantasy football implications that could affect the outcomes the rest of the season. Let’s take a look at the trade first and then what it means for each team and their fantasy assets. The trade is contingent on Davante Adams passing a physical so we still need confirmation of that but there here are the details as we know it.
Raiders Trade Adams To Jets
New York Jets Get
Las Vegas Raiders Get
- Conditional 3rd Round Pick
- Jets pick up remainder of Adams's contract
New York Jets Fantasy Implications
Fantasy Football Winners
The obvious winner number one is Aaron Rodgers, who links up with superstar wide receiver Davante Adams once again. The Jets didn’t give up any players in the deal going back, so there’s no downside here in fantasy for Rodgers himself.
Davante Adams finished as a top five WR in fantasy on four different occasions playing with Aaron Rodgers. We’ve seen how well Rodgers has linked up with former teammate Allen Lazard, so the two should be back on the same page in no time.
You could argue there will be fewer targets to go around, but the designed plays and dump downs that backs get really don’t have much to do with Adams. More importantly, the offense as a whole will be better. You have to move the ball to score and run-heavy game scripts are often the luxury of the winning team.
- Jets DST
The more time the defense spends off the field, the more rested they are. The more desperate the other team becomes, the more likely they are to get aggressive and turn the ball over. This is a sneaky winner for fantasy football.
Fantasy Football Losers
This is where the targets are going to hurt some. He’ll still be a top two target on the team but even guys like Joe Burrow or Jalen Hurts have trouble consistently feeding Tee Higgins and DeVonta Smith with another star there. Garrett Wilson should still be a decent start, but the odds of him being the league-breaking WR1 you hoped for when you drafted him in the first round are likely dashed.
There is a world obviously where the targets are highly consolidated and maybe we DO have a situation like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. In that case the value for Wilson could be neutral of possibly even improved. But, in all likelihood, it will end up being at least a slight negative for Wilson, especially in terms of upside. There's certainly no reason to fire the ball at him 20 times anymore like they did against the Vikings.
It is incredibly rare for a team to have three pass catchers all get 100+ targets. And 100+ targets is the barrier to entry you need to be a WR2 (last year only Deebo Samuel did it without 100+ targets and he scored five rushing TDs). Lazard will still be in line for the sporadic TD but they may be more sporadic than ever.
Every top 12 tight end in PPR last year was a top two target on the team. That was already a tall order for Tyler Conklin.
After Aaron Rodgers called him out for running the wrong route on a game-losing interception, I cannot imagine Mike Williams sees the field a whole lot with this new configuration.
Las Vegas Raiders Fantasy Implications
Fantasy Football Winners
- Every Pass Catcher
This doesn’t need to be some deep analysis. You take a wide receiver away that has commanded 10+ targets a game for six straight years, including both years on the Raiders, and there are more targets to go around.
We’ve actually seen a couple games of it now with Adams out. Jakobi Meyers and Brock Bowers are the obvious beneficiaries but guys like Tre Tucker and DJ Turner will get additional looks as well. Harrison Bryant could be a DFS dart throw until Michael Mayer gets back.
Fantasy Football Losers
Whether it’s Gardner Minshew or AOC, life is a lot easier when you have a Hall of Fame Caliber wide receiver out there. There’s really no way to spin this as a good thing.
- Raiders Running Backs
Like we said in the Breece Hall/Braelon Allen section, running is the luxury of the winning team. This team is clearly making moves with the future in mind which is not good news for the running game.
Player News
Philly Voice’s Geoff Mosher believes Eagles RB Will Shipley is the offensive player most “under the microscope.”
Shipley was a fourth-round pick out of Clemson last year and played sparingly out of the RB3 role. Mosher is watching how the 22-year-old will step up to fill the back-up running back role that Kenneth Gainwell - who departed for the Steelers - occupied last season. Gainwell was important in pass protection and a good presence when Saquon Barkley was out on possessions for blitz pickup and pass-catching. Mosher says, “if Shipley can show growth in those areas, he could undertake Gainwell’s role and give the offense even more optionality.” The Eagles added AJ Dillon in the offseason, though Dillon is more of a downhill-runner than a third-down back for the RB2 role. Shipley won’t have much value in redraft leagues, but could find his way to production through filling in an open role in the Eagles backfield.
Titans coach Brian Callahan said “I think we can do a better job managing that load so they both play a little more evenly” when asked about Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears.
Even when Spears was healthy last year, Callahan used him as more of a third-down back. Through two years, Spears has played on 253 running plays (blocking 63 times) and 626 passing plays (blocking 119 times) per PFF. Callahan also seems to always preface this with something along the lines of “in a perfect world,” as he did in both this quote and in one we blurbed earlier in May. It’s not completely out of the range of outcomes that Tony Pollard loses major snaps and carries this year — losing a few carries should be the expectation given how many games last year he played as essentially the only back Callahan trusted to run the ball. But we’re not completely sold on the idea of Spears as a 1B just yet. Spears is going to have to show more in camp or Callahan is going to have to actually give him a real snap share as a runner with Pollard active before this becomes more than offseason talk.
ESPN’s DJ Bien-Aime believes Christian Kirk “looked like a potential safety blanket” for C.J. Stroud in OTAs and minicamp.
That’s the smell of a PPR scam in development. Kirk, who has been called the “slot demon” by Texans defenders in the early offseason camp, looks like a clear No. 2 behind Nico Collins in the Texans pecking order coming into the season. It remains to be seen if Jayden Higgins or Jaylin Noel can make a real push for targets early in the season, and Kirk’s experience figures to make him at least a big part of the early-season plan for the Texans.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson have “resumed talks” in recent weeks.
Hendrickson “wants more long-term security” from the Bengals per Fowler, who also notes that Hendrickson is “dug in” and “prepared to miss time.” It’s good news for Bengals fans that the sides are at least talking again, but it sure sounds like the Bengals are going to have to give Hendrickson more than their recent offers have been to get him into training camp.
The Athletic’s Colton Pouncy believes a Jameson Williams trade “could be on the horizon in 2026" if the sides can’t agree on an extension.
This subplot had a brief little surge ahead of the draft that led nowhere, but the Lions did trade up to take Isaac TeSlaa in the third round of the draft. While the team has publicly prioritized extensions for Aidan Hutchinson and Kerby Joseph, GM Brad Holmes has been more muted while talking about Williams. Williams is entering the fourth year of his rookie contract ahead of his fifth-year option. The actions here are speaking loudly to the idea of dealing Williams after getting one more productive year out of him. It should be said, none of this speculation impacts Williams’ fantasy value this season, and coaches have raved about him all offseason in John Morton’s more downfield-focused attack. But the Lions have not appeared to prioritize a Williams extension and this could shape up to be the last dance for him in Detroit.
The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo believes Cordarrelle Patterson “could find himself on the outside looking in” for a roster spot in 2025.
“The Steelers’ backfield is full with rookie Kaleb Johnson and offseason signing Kenneth Gainwell joining Jaylen Warren. It remains to be seen if OC Arthur Smith will lobby for the hybrid RB/WR to remain on the roster as a Swiss Army knife,” DeFabo continues. Patterson only had 32 carries for 135 yards last year, but it would be a little surprising for the Steelers to cut bait with one of the greatest kickoff returners in NFL history. Entering his age-34 season, Patterson will need to keep impressing in camp to retain his spot on the roster.