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Davante Adams’ trade drama heats up with star WR’s cryptic clues
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Davante Adams’ trade drama heats up with star WR’s cryptic clues


The NFL Week 5 notebook takes a closer look at Davante Adams trade rumors, Lamar Jackson’s candidacy, Kyle Pitts’ big night and more.

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Go ahead, connect the dots.

Edgar Allan Poe. Dissatisfied recipient. Trade bait.

Davante Adams’ cryptic Instagram post on Friday has certainly fueled buzz that the eager-to-leave Las Vegas Raiders star has seemingly set his sights on a deal that would see him join the Baltimore Ravens, aka the Dead Poet’s Team to take.

Adams, who reportedly requested a trade earlier this week, posted a photo of Poe, whose most famous work, “The Raven,” inspired the name of the NFL team that resides in the city where the legendary writer is buried .

He then followed it up with a post that included this Poe quote: “Believe nothing you hear and half of what you see.”

Well, we can believe the Raiders have a business decision to make by letting the wide receiver fulfill his wishes. If it hasn’t already happened, the Raiders should allow Adams’ agents, Frank Bauer and Kenny Chapman, to attempt to broker a trade that would resolve the issue.

That is of course easier said than done. While Adams would be a great value to a healthy mix of contenders on his apparent wish list, likely including Baltimore, Buffalo, the New York Jets, Dallas, Pittsburgh and New Orleans, he would make a deal that would also match his massive salary under the limit can make it a no-go in some cases. Consider that after Adams was acquired from Green Bay in 2022, he landed a five-year contract worth $140 million. According to overthecap.com, Adams is still owed approximately $13.5 million in base salary this season, with that amount decreasing by nearly $1 million for each week he remains with the team.

Meanwhile, Raiders coach Antonio Pierce may want to get permission from Steelers coach Mike Tomlin to use this Tomlinism now: “We need volunteers, not hostages.”

The Raiders also need the premium draft capital they can get, which could add up to a package to move up in next year’s draft to select one of the top quarterbacks. Of course, cryptic social media posts probably won’t help drive up the price of what Raiders GM Tom Telesco can fetch for a 31-year-old receiver. But with the trade deadline still a month away, time and circumstances could start to weigh on the price for potential suitors… if the caponomy works.

Adams, who missed last weekend’s win against Cleveland due to a hamstring injury, has not practiced all week and has been ruled out for Sunday’s game in Denver.

“He’s supposed to be recovering,” Pierce said, leaving the rest to the imagination.

On the other hand, cryptic messages add to the spice of this episode. There was a clear response from Saints quarterback Derek Carr, a close friend and former college teammate who lasted just a year at the Las Vegas reunion with Adams.

“I think all 32 quarterbacks would love to play with Davante,” Carr told reporters in New Orleans. “We would welcome that.”

Ditto for another former Adams quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.

“I don’t know how much I can say about it because of tampering, but I still have a close friendship with him,” Rodgers said from London, where his Jets will face the Vikings.

Then Rodgers – possibly not inspired by Poe – poetically dropped his own cryptic message.

“The grass is green where you water it,” Rodgers said. “There’s the fear-mongering that comes with the adage, ‘The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.’ But the grass is greener where you water it. You put the time into it, you put an intention in what you do and you can turn any place into a special situation.”

Now try to connect those dots.

Lamar Jackson discusses betting, fantasy and reality

I absolutely loved Lamar Jackson firing back at the followers (or bettors or even fans) who fire off on social media with their disgust that the Ravens star or other players aren’t hitting certain points that would pay off with their betting or fantasy football action.

He’s hardly the first player to express such reluctance, but it was refreshing to get a reminder as the NFL and other sports leagues embrace the gambling and fantasy industries that, well, grow the sport.

Part of a Jackson post on

When he met with reporters at Raven’s headquarters later that week, Jackson laid out the matter.

“We don’t bet on the match,” he said. “We can’t even bet on matches. So we are not worried about that. I also don’t think we go into games worrying about statistics. We are concerned about the W column.”

It should be noted that while a few gambling scandals have surfaced in Major League Baseball and the NBA, it has been more than a year since an NFL player has been disciplined for a violation of the league’s gambling policy.

Have you noticed? Kyle Pitts breaks out

You could imagine Kirk Cousins ​​breaking the 500-yard barrier one night just so Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts would get plenty of touches. Finished.

Yet it also appeared that four days after Pitts played in his first NFL game without a catch, the Falcons were very intentional about getting the athletic target into the flow right away. Cousins’ first throw of the evening was a beauty down the right seam from 32 yards. So that was that.

The message?

“He trusts me,” Pitts said afterward.

Pitts was targeted eight times in the wild shootout against the Bucs, finishing with seven catches for 88 yards. The receiving return nearly matched his total through the first four games this season (eight), while the yardage was the most in a game for Pitts since his rookie year in 2021, when he posted three 100-yard games.

Of course, Pitts, the tightest, highest-drafted player in history when he was selected fourth overall, also sounded unbothered by social media critics who branded him as something of a draft bust after the zero-catch game labeled.

“I don’t really pay attention to social media,” Pitts told USA TODAY as he sat fully clothed in the locker room. “Those people sit behind their phones and just tweet. But they can’t come out here on the field and do it. For me, it’s just contributing to this offense and letting the ball find me.”

Fast slopes

– The NFL Players Association is pushing to ban media from the locker room during the week – but not on game days – due to privacy concerns. The union calls on its members to conduct interviews outside the locker room. Know this: That option has existed for decades, and as the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA) noted in a statement Friday, it’s in the media policy. Whether players comply with the policy (and whether the NFL enforces it) is another matter. It is understandable that players may feel uncomfortable during the various stages of undressing or while completely naked. And that point was recently illustrated when a radio reporter (and non-PFWA member) posted a locker room interview with a player, with the back of another player visible in the background. In short, professionalism must be the standard for media covering the competition and for players fulfilling media obligations. As it stands now, players typically wait to conduct interviews in their lockers until they are fully clothed.

– Geno Smith – who led the NFL with 1,182 passing yards after Week 4 and set a Seahawks record with 56 passes Monday night in Detroit – is on pace for a 5,024-yard season. Sure, 5,000 is a rare milestone with a sliding scale. Of the 15 times quarterbacks have passed the 5k (starting with Dan Marino in 1984), three have occurred since the league went to a 17-game season in 2021. But if he can continue at this torrid pace, the milestone could really be enough for Smith, who stayed in the NFL as a backup for six years until succeeding Russell Wilson as Seattle’s starter in 2022. Now he has a blistering completion percentage of 72.3% and after week 4 he led the league in completions (115) and attempts (159).