‘My benchmark is … greatness’: Davante Adams frustrated at lack of touches
The Raiders offense continues to languish at the bottom of the NFL rankings. And it’s resulted in everything being a struggle, including in their two straight wins.
Davante Adams has an easy cure: Just get him the damn ball.
The star wide receiver made that abundantly clear Wednesday when he said the offense has a chance to soar if he becomes more of a focal point. That was not the case the past two weeks when Adams was targeted a total of nine times and caught six passes for 74 yards.
In both instances, the Raiders (3-3) won close games against teams they should have beaten more decisively. And Adams is not hiding his disappointment in not playing a bigger role to increase the production. The Raiders are averaging 16.7 points, the fifth-fewest in the NFL.
“If it don’t look like it’s supposed to look, then I’m going to be frustrated if I’m not a part of that plan because I have the opportunity to go and change that and make it look like a much better picture out there,” Adams said. “And if that doesn’t happen, then I’m going to be frustrated.”
That anger was evident Sunday when Adams left Allegiant Stadium without talking to the media. Despite the win over the Patriots, he was angry that the overall performance wasn’t better. As he explained, winning isn’t enough. The offense, he believes, should be dominant. Anything less creates frustration.
“When you’re a player like me mentally, my benchmark is not wins and losses, it’s greatness,” Adams said. “So, when I go out there, I expect to be able to have that ability, to put that on tape and have an influence on the game.”
By not utilizing him correctly, Adams said the Raiders are letting opportunities to dominate slip through their hands.
“That’s my purpose for being here,” he said. “I came here to win and to do it the right way.”
Adams made it clear he wasn’t pointing fingers at coach Josh McDaniels, who has expressed similar frustrations over the Raiders’ inability to get Adams more involved in a way that Adams appreciates.
But that appreciation goes only so far.
“It makes you feel better that other people see it the same way as you,” Adams said. “But that don’t fix it. So you still have to do something about it as a whole. Not him, but as a whole we still gotta find a way to get it going.”
McDaniels said Wednesday he understands the lens through which Adams and players of his caliber see things.
“The game is different for them because they’ve achieved a certain status, and they want to contribute every single time that they’re out there as much as they can,” McDaniels said. “That’s part of them being them. I would never tell them to squash that.”
Adams, though, believes it’s time it gets corrected. Part of that requires quarterbacks Jimmy Garoppolo, Brian Hoyer and Aidan O’Connell to still throw him the ball even when teams have various bodies on him. The same was true last season when Derek Carr had to make that adjustment.
“I’m not naive. At the end of the day, it’s not easy throwing to somebody who gets the coverage I get,” Adams said. “It’s a lot more complex picture that they’re looking at than the numbers we’re studying throughout the week.”
Making that adjustment, Adams said, is the difference between the offense reaching its potential or continuing to struggle.
“It has to happen on a more consistent basis for us to be the offense we want to be,” Adams said.
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow@VinnyBonsignore on X.