Davante Adams is one of the best to ever do it. But at 31 years old in an iffy offensive situation, what should we expect? It could be better than we think. The Raiders were a mess last season – the offensive staff was fired mid-season, and it led to next-man-up Bo Hardegree calling plays for the first time. Needless to say, he’s not back with the team as they gear up for 2024.
HC Antonio Pierce brought in Luke Getsy to be their OC and play caller, who worked in the same capacity for the Bears last season. More importantly, he was Davante Adams’ OC and certified homeboy in his final years with the Packers, which also happened to be two of Adams’ best years in his career. He put up 115 receptions, 1374 yards, and 18(!) touchdowns in 2020 and followed that up with 123 receptions for 1553 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2021.
Having Aaron Rodgers certainly had a lot to do with it… but there was more.
Getsy ran Adams out of the slot at the highest rate of his career, and he also ran him mostly on layup routes with some of Adams’ lowest average depth of target of his career. Why is that good? Because that’s what this lackluster QB room needs. The Aidan O’Connell vs Gardner Minshew QB1 battle doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence, to be frank, but quick and easier throws will lead to easy production for Adams.
To be clear: we want Minshew to win this battle for Adams’ sake. Minshew was able to support Michael Pittman Jr. as a WR1 – and a very solid one at that – from Weeks 6-18 last year once Richardson was out for the year. Over that span, Pittman was the overall WR9 in PPR pts per game while being fed a 32% target share with 79% catchable targets. He finished top-17 each week, as well, from Week 6 onward until he eventually was injured in Week 14 with that brutal concussion against the Steelers.
We can’t ignore what O’Connell was able to do for Adams in his time as starter last year, because there were some bright spots: a 35% target share is exactly what you want from your WR1, and Adams finished inside the top-10 three times with O’Connell under center. However, in nine games from Weeks 9-18, Adams also finished outside the top-20 five times while only receiving catchable passes on 67% of his targets. The volume was consistent, but his production was more volatile than we like it to be.