Davante Adams signed a two-year, $46 million deal with the Los Angeles Rams during the offseason but it is the comments he recently made about an apparent interaction between his agent and the San Francisco 49ers that has made headlines this week.
During an interview with Mike Silver of The Athletic, Adams revealed that he had interest in pursuing a deal with the 49ers, but, in his words, was not met with the type of negotiations that Adams felt a player the caliber of himself was worth. As you would expect, those comments spread throughout the football world quickly.
“I was entertaining the Niners,” Adams said, per Silver, “but they were like, ‘We’re paying wholesale. We ain’t paying retail.’ I didn’t talk to them, but that’s what my agent told me — like five times, that quote. And I was like, ‘OK, well, I’m not a wholesale-type dude.’”
“I haven’t lost any speed, which, you know, I didn’t come into the league as a burner, so people weren’t looking to see a 4.2 (40-yard dash) turn into 4.5," Adams reiterated during his conversation with Silver. "I was high 4.4s coming in, and I’m running the same speeds now. Whether it’s the GPS, or if I could line up and run a 40 right now, I’d probably run a faster 40 than I ran when I was 21 years old. And obviously, I mean, the proof is in the pudding. I don’t need to tell you what I can still do or not.”
There is no doubt that Adams is a talented wide receiver and has earned the reputation that he carries with him throughout the league. What is up for debate, however, is whether or not these comments regarding "wholesale" and "retail" prices when it came to a contract offer from the 49ers are real and, if so, who they came from?
As San Francisco GM John Lynch clearly put it on Tuesday while speaking with the media, those words never came out of his mouth when discussing the possibility of adding Adams to the fold as part of the 49ers receiving corps.
“I saw that quote and it said his agent had told him that," Lynch said, via 95.7 The Game. "That wasn’t me. I’ve always had a great deal of respect for Davante. That didn’t line up. He's on a divisional rival, we're gonna have our work cut out covering him and playing against him. He's a really good player. If there was any disrespect taken, none was intended."
In addition to disputing the alleged comments made to Adams' agent came from him, Lynch also went to bat for Kyle Shanahan in response to a question posed by a member of the media by unequivocally stating that San Francisco's head coach doesn't talk to agents.
There are obviously two sides to any story and, in this case, the stories being told by the respective parties involved could not be further apart. It wouldn't make sense for Lynch to offer such a staunch denial of these comments if there was even the slightest doubt in his mind that they came from him. That can likewise be said about Lynch's defense of Shanahan.
At the end of the day, this dispute can be settled on the field this coming season. The way that instances like this should be handled in the NFL.