So Davante Adams is in the news this week, saying he's not sure about the Raiders offense this year. The front office and him, he is quoted as, "don't see eye to eye on what we think is best for us right now." Uh oh.
Adams, of course, signed off on the move to the Raiders from the Packers a year ago, joining his college quarterback. But Derek Carr is now in New Orleans, and Las Vegas will be starting a different quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo. Which got me wondering how wide receivers have fared with Handsome Jimmy in the lineup.
Garroppolo was in San Francisco for six years, but in only three of them was he the starter for most of the season, so I focused on those years (2019, 2021 and 2022). He was the starter or played most of 16, 15 and 11 games those seasons; just 6, 3 and 6 the other three. So I looked at the wide receivers from those three years.
It wasn't quite as bad as I thought. Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk were the best wide receivers Jimmy played with in those seasons -- a notch (or more) below Adams, perhaps, but capable players. Samuel was the No. 3 wideout one year in part due to his huge rushing production, but he also put up very strong receiving numbers -- 77 catches for 1,405 yards, with 6 touchdowns. Aiyuk, meanwhile, went over 1,000 yards last year as San Francisco's No. 1, with Samuel missing about a month. He was the 15th-best PPR wideout. Different offense and all, but it's not as if Jimmy couldn't deliver a successful wideout or two with the opportunity.
On the other hand, the most touchdowns any of those wideouts caught with Garoppolo at quarterback was 8. Adams has caught double-digit touchdowns in six of his last seven seasons, and averaged 14 in his last three. It seems reasonable to scale Adams' touchdowns back a little for 2023.
Moreover, those single 1,000-yard receiving seasons for Samuel and Aiyuk were there only ones. Otherwise just 600-800 receiving yards, and with 5, 3 and 2 receiving touchdowns.
| SAN FRANCISCO WIDE RECEIVERS WITH GAROPPOLO | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | G | Run | TD | Tgt | No | Rec | Avg | TD | Rk |
| 2021 | Deebo Samuel | 16 | 365 | 8 | 121 | 77 | 1405 | 18.3 | 6 | 3 |
| 2022 | Brandon Aiyuk | 17 | 23 | 0 | 114 | 78 | 1015 | 13.0 | 8 | 15 |
| 2021 | Brandon Aiyuk | 17 | 17 | 0 | 84 | 56 | 826 | 14.8 | 5 | 35 |
| 2019 | Deebo Samuel | 15 | 159 | 3 | 81 | 57 | 802 | 14.1 | 3 | 31 |
| 2022 | Deebo Samuel | 13 | 232 | 3 | 94 | 56 | 632 | 11.3 | 2 | 36 |
| 2022 | Jauan Jennings | 16 | 0 | 0 | 56 | 35 | 416 | 11.9 | 1 | 90 |
| 2019 | Kendrick Bourne | 16 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 30 | 358 | 11.9 | 5 | 73 |
| 2021 | Jauan Jennings | 16 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 24 | 282 | 11.8 | 5 | 91 |
Ultimately, I think I'm more concerned with Adams being unhappy than his quarterback situation. If Carr can throw 14 touchdowns to Adams, Garoppolo should be able to get him into double digits, too. But I think it makes sense to drop him a couple of spots in the rankings; seems a little more likely he'll be selected by someone else in drafts than me right now.
--Andy Richardson