Raiders' Davante Adams Clarifies HOF Remarks When Comparing Derek Carr, Aaron Rodgers
July 24, 2022
Davante Adams is already making headlines with his new team.
The wide receiver turned heads when he seemed to call Derek Carr a surefire future Hall of Famer like Aaron Rodgers during an interview with CBS Sports on Friday: "Any time you change quarterbacks from Hall of Famer to Hall of Famer ... it's going to be a little bit of an adjustment."
He provided some more context to the situation Sunday.
"But what I meant to say was, 'Even if you go Hall of Famer to Hall of Famer, it's an adjustment,'" he said, per Paul Gutierrez of ESPN. "I wasn't saying, 'Hall of Famer Aaron to Hall of Famer Derek.' So, I'm not retracting my statement at all."
He also compared the situation to a rapper delivering lines in a song:
"Being a rapper, it's very vital, you've got to have the bars, obviously. You know you've got to have the bars. The line's got to be there. But a very, very vital and critical piece of being a rapper is the delivery, right? I wasn't a great rapper the other day.
"What I'm not going to do is take away from that statement because, why is Derek not a Hall of Famer? What I meant, I left one key word out of there because that's not exactly what I meant. But I do think that Derek's career is Hall of Fame-worthy, and why not? Does he have the MVPs right now? No. Has he won a Super Bowl? Not yet. That's obviously what we're chasing."
In fairness to Carr, few quarterbacks in NFL history can match Rodgers' resume.
The Green Bay Packers signal-caller is a four-time MVP, one-time Super Bowl champion, 10-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro selection who has thrown for more than 4,000 yards in 10 different seasons.
Adams helped him put up some of those numbers as one of the best receivers in the league during his eight seasons with the Packers, five of which saw him selected to the Pro Bowl.
Carr is a three-time Pro Bowler himself, but he has never won a playoff game and is just 57-70 in his career as a starter. The winning is where he is lacking compared to some of his peers, but Adams could help change that.
"But what I'm not going to do is say Derek is not going to be a Hall of Famer because at the end of the day I believe—and this is not putting any expectations or any added pressure on him because he puts that type of pressure on himself because of what he expects every time he touches the field," Adams said.
Carr and Adams were college teammates at Fresno State and will be front and center for the Raiders for years to come after the wide receiver signed a five-year deal with the team following the trade that brought him over from Green Bay.
If they can compete in a daunting AFC West for the foreseeable future and add some playoff success to the individual accomplishments already on Carr's resume, the Hall of Fame won't be out of the question.