Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams shifts contract focus to guaranteed money
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Davante Adams and T.J. Watt aren’t teammates, but they are pursuing the same goal as the NFL season approaches.
The Green Bay Packers wide receiver and Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker are both in the final years of their contracts and are seeking extensions that will reset the market at their positions. And they both play for teams who refuse to guarantee salary beyond a signing bonus.
According to a person familiar with Adams’ situation, the all-pro receiver is at a stalemate with the club over the structure of a new deal. Initially, Adams wanted the highest average of any receiver in the league, but the focus has turned toward guaranteed money.
Asked Wednesday if there was any chance he would sign a contract extension before the Packers’ season opener against New Orleans in Jacksonville on Sunday, Adams responded, “No chance.”
The Packers have reached deals with players on the eve of the regular-season opener or in the first few weeks of the season, but generally if it’s not done then, the price goes up and the Packers face an uphill climb because the player can see the light of free agency ahead.
In Watt’s case, the Steelers allowed him to sit out drills during training camp while the two sides negotiated. But Watt could not get the Steelers to budge on their policy of not guaranteeing future salaries and he returned to full practice Wednesday with the intent of playing Sunday without a new deal.
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Adams said at the beginning of training camp that he would not allow the business side of the game to affect his performance and he said Wednesday that he did that successfully. He said it was easy for him because his focus once he is on the field is always the same.
“I feel like I had one of the best camps in my career,” Adams said. “I was able to really come back and get reacquainted with my brothers. We picked up where we left off. Like I’ve said, it's just the way that I have found success, coming up from all stages of life, just focusing on that moment.
“So, it's not like, it took any work to do that, it's just blocking out the rest of the stuff that I don't really need at the time.”
Behind the scenes, Adams’ long-time agent, Frank Bauer, has been battling the Packers over their hard-line stance on future guarantees. Most teams have given up on holding that line and it’s easy to see why Adams can envision the Packers giving him more guaranteed money than just a signing bonus.
Receiver Julio Jones, now with the Tennessee Titans after a June trade from Atlanta, received the highest amount of guaranteed money for a receiver -- $64 million – in a three-year extension he signed in ’19. It included a $25 million signing bonus and base salaries of $1.3 million in ’21 and $11.513 million in ’22 and ’23.
General manager Brian Gutekunst has stressed that the Packers plan to make Adams the highest-paid receiver in the NFL, but he admitted the two sides disagree on what that yearly average should be. Adams argued it should be the $27.25 million Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins received in an extension, but the Packers don’t view that a full extension because of the short length.
Unable to agree on that figure, the two sides are trying to find middle ground on guaranteed money, but the Packers rarely guarantee future salaries.
The two most recent cases where they did it was with quarterback Aaron Rodgers and left tackle David Bakhtiari. Even then, $57.5 million of Rodgers’ $79.2 million was in the form of a signing bonus.
The Packers’ two most recent big contracts did not include any guaranteed salaries. Left tackle David Bakhtiari received a $30 million signing bonus on a four-year, $92 million extension and nose tackle Kenny Clark received a $25 million signing bonus on a four-year $70 million extension. Both deals were signed last year.
Adams can make a pretty good argument for deserving future guaranteed salaries after earning all-pro honors with a franchise-record 115 receptions and franchise record-tying 18 touchdowns last season. Just 28 years old, Adams has had double-digit touchdown receptions in four of his seven years in the league, including four of the last five. He has twice topped 100 receptions and 1,000 yards in a season and averages 12 yards per reception.
In the fourth year of a $58 million contract he signed in 2017, Adams is scheduled to make $13.25 million in salary and bonuses this year. At that price he is a bargain, but the Packers don’t want him to reach free agency next year and have said they are committed to getting him signed.