Davante Adams reveals ugly details behind failed contract talks with Packers

Negotiating a new contract always gets a little ugly. Players feel like they've earned top dollar, and teams bend over backwards – in an effort to get some discount – to prove to them that's not true. It's why, a lot of times, athletes leave those conversation totally in the hands of their agents. It gets personal.

Take, for instance, Davante Adams and the Packers. Before Green Bay traded him to Las Vegas back in March of 2022, the two sides had extensive talks about what a new deal would look like. While speaking on the "All Facts No Breaks" podcast recently, Adams gave fans a little bit of insight on what those conversations were like, and reader, it's ugly. If you're still a little sore about the Packers letting go of one of the best wide receivers in team history, this would be a good place to stop reading.

Adams reveals ugly details of failed contract negotiation with Packers

"I don't ever make a decision just out of passion," he said. "It's always caluculated. Everything I do is calculated. Just the surface level, we saw how much Aaron [Rodgers] was going back and forth, year by year. We didn't know how long he was going to be in Green Bay."

"And honestly, since we're talking about it, going into that last year I played in Green Bay, I told [the front office,] 'You see what I'm doing ... it's time for a new deal.' So I said are we going to let me go into this last year with now security, basically playing for $12 million, which is significantly less than what a franchise tag would be. So I'm playing for worse than what the tag is, no security."

"So long story short, I talked to them. I said, 'Y'all see it's All-Pro after All-Pro. So what do you need to see in order to feel like you can pay me right now?' I said pay me right now, and I'm not going to even consider that Aaron may be out of here. Let's do it now, and if it's up to J Love when Aaron is out of here, then we're going to rock on ... They said, 'OK, we'll give you 17 a year' ... click, nothing to talk about. I don't know if you know what the market looks like or if you've been asleep for the last five years, but there's nothing to talk about."

Woof. I guess that's how contract negotiations work, but still, not a great look from the Packers' front office. Just for some perspective, $17 a year right now would put Adams between Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton; 22 wide receivers make more than that. That obviously wasn't going to cut it for Adams, even if it was just a starting offer. Now that Josh Jacobs conversation makes even more sense.