Raiders Welcome $98 Million WR Davante Adams Who Agrees Endorsement With Team….
It’s been a quiet offseason for Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams. Despite his lack of involvement in the team’s offseason, he’s likely watching their quarterback situation closer than anybody.
The Raiders still have Aidan O’Connell under contract and signed Gardner Minshew in free agency. While both have proven to be solid quarterbacks, neither of them move the needle for the team. Las Vegas has commonly been linked to 2023 Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels.
Recently, Adams took to his Instagram and posted a picture of Daniels holding up his Heisman Trophy on his Instagram story. While Adams didn’t comment anything, the post certainly raised some eyebrows.
Adams had his worst statistical season since 2019 due to the Raiders having inconsistent quarterback play. He’s invested in the team finding the right quarterback and it seems like he believes Daniels is the right guy.
The only problem facing Las Vegas is that Daniels will likely be a top-three pick. The Raiders don’t pick until No. 13 so they will have to trade up to land the quarterback. That’s easier said than done.
Davante Adams Has Previously Praised Jayden Daniels
Davante Adams came to the Raiders to play with Derek Carr but the team moved on from the quarterback last offseason. The team’s quarterback situation was rough last season with Jimmy Garoppolo getting benched and Aidan O’Connell taking over.
Adams was pounding the table for the team to draft C.J. Stroud, who ended up winning Offensive Rookie of the Year with the Houston Texans. This year, he seems to have similar feelings about Jayden Daniels.
“I think based off the situation last year,” Adams said during the January 18 episode of “Two G’s in a Pod, “I paid a little bit more attention to where Bryce [Young] and C.J. [Stroud] were playing. It was a little bit easier to pay attention to them. I’m not great with college football but I did pay a little attention to Jayden Daniels.”
“I know he’s good, tough, obviously he won a Heisman so he’s a great player. That’s somebody that I think could come in and be a decent player.”
Adams doesn’t have much of a say regarding who will play quarterback next season but he seems to do a good job of evaluating talent at the position.
Getting Jayden Daniels Won’t Be Easy
If the Raiders really want Jayden Daniels, they have to hope that the Washington Commanders at No. 2 or the New England Patriots at No. 3 get cold feet about drafting a quarterback. Both teams have major needs all over their rosters so it’s possible they might not be ready to start the clock on a rookie quarterback.
If either team is considering trading down, the Raiders have likely already been in contact. The team went 8-9 last season and could be a quarterback away from being in the playoffs. They have a lot more motivation to start their rookie quarterback clock than a team like the Commanders or Patriots.
However, Las Vegas is going to have to be willing to give up a lot in a trade. At a minimum, it’s going to cost two first-round picks to get into the top three.
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Raiders recognize Tom Flores Coach of the Year Jodi Reich, girls flag football state champion Coronado Cougars
Jodi Reich, Coronado High School’s Girls Flag Football coach, sat in shock in the team room at Intermountain Health Performance Center. Alongside her assistant coaches and players, a surprise video announcement appeared on the projector screen – naming her the Tom Flores Girls Flag Football Coach of the Year.
While Reich wasn’t expecting the announcement to be made, it didn’t come as a surprise to anyone else in the room she received this honor. Her Coronado Cougars finished the 2023 season with a 20-2 record and won the 4A State Championship while Reich was voted 4A Coach of the Year by Southern Nevada Flag Coaches Association.
“I think it’s really important for these female athletes to see a female coach of the year because all of these athletes in this room could be a head coach,” said Jodi Reich. “I think we’re going to see a really big increase in coaching in general with women because of how many opportunities there are now to with what [the Raiders] are doing to highlight the sport. It feels really good and I’m super thankful.”
If anything for Reich, it’s more of a full-circle revelation than it was a surprise for her. Coronado is also her alma mater, as she played on the school’s first girls flag football team following its inception. With the opening of a teaching position at the school, she soon took over the reins of the team from her former head coach as a player.
“It’s been a complete shift,” Reich on the evolution of the sport from her time as a player to a coach. “It was coming from [having] no players, we have no uniforms. We were just scrapping together a team. Back then a lot of our players were soccer players or track runners that just needed something to do in the winter. We just got a random assortment of athletes and now we have girls that are just flag players and they’re dominant in their sport.
“The Raiders support is something I’ve never experienced as a player and it’s been really cool. The game has completely changed, but it’s completely changed for the best.”
Senior Maci Joncich, one of Reich’s star players, was also recognized at the Raiders facility. Joncich played quarterback, wide receiver and safety for the Cougars and was voted 4A Player of the Year. She now has a huge opportunity on the horizon, setting her sights on the Olympics.
She’s one of two players from the Las Vegas Valley to be selected for the initial 18-athlete roster for USA Football’s U.S. Women’s Flag Football National Team. She’ll have the chance to make the final 12-woman roster and compete in the Flag Football World Championships in Finland this summer.
“Playing flag [football] all my life and working so hard towards that big goal of mine and finally reaching it – it was so exciting,” said Maci Joncich. “And it really makes me more eager to reach the Olympics and to win gold in Finland this August. It’s just so excited and I’m so pumped.
“The Raiders have just been so supportive year after year, it’s got so much better,” continued Jonicich on the Raiders’ involvement in youth sports for women. “With all of this, I’ve been to headquarters now about five or six times and that just shows you how much they do for flag football and the community in general.
Along with the Coach of the Year award, the Las Vegas Raiders presented Reich and her team with a $2,000 contribution as they prepare to defend their state title.