Mile High Report
Denver will look to beat the Raiders for the first time since 2019. How is Raider Nation feeling heading into Sunday?
There was a lot of optimism around the Las Vegas Raiders after Week 2.
That’s now been replaced by drama.
On the heels of a shocking Week 2 upset of the Baltimore Ravens, Raider Nation was on cloud nine. But the Raiders (2-2) followed that up with an embarrassing loss to the Carolina Panthers.
The drama surrounds receiver Davante Adams and his inevitable trade to the New York Jets. The star wideout won’t be on the field this Sunday as Las Vegas looks to keep its winning streak alive against the rival Denver Broncos (2-2). Denver hasn’t defeated its rival since 2019.
To preview Sunday’s game, we go “behind enemy lines” to get a feel for the Raiders heading Sunday’s game with Matt Holder from Silver and Black Pride.
Matt: There was optimism after the win in Baltimore against the Ravens but that was short-lived when the Raiders followed up that performance with a humiliating blowout loss to the Panthers. While it was good to get back on track last week with a win against the Cleveland Browns, the loss to Carolina is still a sour taste in the fanbase’s mouth. Combining that with an offense that has struggled to get going and the unit’s best player asking for a trade, there isn’t a ton of optimism for the rest of the year in Las Vegas.
Matt: At this point, I’d be more surprised if Adams isn’t traded.
The Athletic’s Vic Tafur shined some light on what happened between the organization and the wideout. To summarize, the Raiders have been feeling like Adams has been more about himself than the team for a few months now, stemming from his comments about the team and quarterback situation on the Netflix show ‘Receiver’ that aired this summer. On top of that, it seems like he and Antonio Pierce had a falling out with the speculation that the wideout was one of the players Pierce was referring to with the coach’s “business decisions” comment after the Panthers game.
From Adams’ perspective, he came to the Raiders to reunite and win with his college quarterback, Derek Carr. However, the Josh McDaniels-led team went 6-11 during Adams’ first year with the Silver and Black, and McDaniels chose to bench and move on from Carr, bringing in Jimmy Garoppolo the following year. If you watched ‘Receiver’, you know how unhappy he was with Garoppolo throwing him the ball.
Ultimately, Adams wanted to finish his career by winning with the team he grew up rooting for. However, the Raiders are 16-22 since he got here, have had two head coaches and general managers...
