HENDERSON, Nev. — A laughing Davante Adams on Sunday clarified his recent comments that created a stir when he compared Aaron Rodgers, his former quarterback with the Green Bay Packers, to Derek Carr, his new quarterback with the Las Vegas Raiders.
“Anytime you change quarterbacks from Hall of Famer to Hall of Famer … it’s going to be a little bit of an adjustment,” Adams told CBS Sports on Friday.
Rodgers, who is entering his 18th NFL season, is a four-time league MVP and was also named MVP of the Packers’ Super Bowl XLV win.
Carr, who is entering his ninth NFL season, is a three-time Pro Bowler who holds virtually every passing record in Raiders franchise history and just appeared in his first playoff game (a broken right leg ended his season two games before the 2016 postseason) but has a career regular-season record of just 57-70.
Adams compared his initial comparison to a musical gaffe.
“Being a rapper, it’s very vital, you’ve got to have the bars, obviously,” Adams said Sunday. “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.”
Adams and Carr were college teammates at Fresno State, and Carr’s presence in Las Vegas was a huge factor in the All-Pro receiver being traded to the Raiders this offseason.
“But what I meant to say was, ‘Even if you go Hall of Famer to Hall of Famer, it’s an adjustment.’ I wasn’t saying, ‘Hall of Famer Aaron to Hall of Famer Derek.’ So, I’m not retracting my statement at all.”
In fact, Adams defended his once and current quarterback.
“Derek’s career, honestly, you look at the numbers that he’s had and what he’s had to work with and the adversity that he’s had in Oakland and coming to Vegas and the type of stuff that’s been going on here in the past, which, hopefully we’re putting all that stuff to bed, but, yeah, I didn’t deliver that message the way that I had in my head,” Adams said. “So later, when I saw [the original quote] written out, it kind of made my stomach drop a little bit because I was like, ‘Oh, god, here we go. People are going to blow this up and take everything I say, and we’re the only team in camp right now.'”
Adams laughed.
“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. “But yeah, I did not mean to say exactly that. I’m going to reiterate — even if you go from Hall of Famer to even another Hall of Famer, it’s going to be an adjustment. Any time you change quarterbacks, is what I was getting at. So, take that and run with it and do whatever you want to do with it.”