Bryan: The Financials Behind A Potential Steelers-Raiders Trade For Davante Adams

Have you been thinking all day about the possibility of the Pittsburgh Steelers trading for Las Vegas Raiders WR Davante Adams? Well, I have, and more from the financial aspect of it due to the Raiders reportedly expecting nice compensation for him as part of a trade.

Any team, including the Steelers, will only view a trade for Adams as a likely one-year rental unless something can be worked out with his contract ahead of a deal being consummated. Because of that, I wanted to look at how the Steelers could potentially negotiate with Adams regarding his contract that would make hefty trade compensation worth it.

As I mentioned in a post on Tuesday afternoon, Adams has inflated salaries in 2025 and 2026 of $35.64 million and $36.64 million, respectively, according to Over the Cap. Also, in those two final years, Adams can earn roster and workout bonuses that total out at $610,000 each. That’s all on top of the $13.526 million he can earn for the remaining 14 weeks of the 2024 season. As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk also reported a few years ago, Adams’ deal also calls for him to earn $250,000 annually to make it to the Pro Bowl, something he has not done since 2022.

When Adams signed his current contract in March 2022, it was pretty much understood at that time that he wasn’t likely to see the final two years of his deal, 2025 and 2026. The total amounts for those two final years were essentially fluff, so Adams’ new money average at the time would come in at $28 million. Florio wrote about that while detailing Adams’ deal.

Knowing that whatever team winds up trading anything considerable for Adams will likely want to have him rework his deal, the big unknown is whether the wide receiver will want to at least keep his new money average of $28 million intact while not messing with any of the remaining money he is due in 2024. That would be a reasonable demand on Adams’ part if we’re being honest.

In order for Adams to retain a $28 million new money average past 2024 and without touching the remaining 2024 money he’s scheduled to earn, he would need to have a 2025 and 2026 total, at least on paper, of $56 million for 2025 and 2026, and that assumes the length of his current contract is not touched, which would make sense for a player about to turn 32.

Any team interested in trading for Adams right now would probably have no issue with that sort of $28 million new money average demand, and that includes the Steelers.

The only other issue would be the total cash flow for Adams in the first new year of 2025. Would he really demand $28 million? I think he would be flexible on that. Let’s say $22.5 million would be a total 2025 take that he would accept. Keep in mind that Adams has earned, or is at least set to have earned, a total of $67.64 million since he signed his current contract in 2022. That’s an average of $22,546,666.67 per year. Asking him to take $22.5 million at the most in 2025 seems like a reasonable request.

As for the remaining $33.5 million to make up the difference of $56 million, that could be his total take in 2026, assuming he is producing enough to earn it.

Now, in lieu of $22.5 million, and $33.5 million being Adams’ respective base salaries in 2025 and 2026, a little of each could be designated as a March roster bonus in those respective years if Adams demanded such.

When it comes to the remaining $13.526 million that Adams is set to earn the remainder of 2024, and assuming he was traded by the end of this week, an acquiring team, and that includes the Steelers, could realistically convert all but $1.21 million of it into a signing bonus and then prorate that amount over three years, 2024-2026.

Below is what the layout of Adams’ reworked deal would look like the way I described it above and it is complete with salary cap charges.

Remember, the example above is designed not to touch the length of Adams’ current contract and also to keep his new money average at $28 million while not touching his 2024 money total. There are other ways to skin the proverbial cat, however, especially if two more years were to be added, with those two essentially being fluff years, just like the deal he’s working off of now when it was signed.

Quite honestly, adding two years to Adams’ current deal as part of the rework might be the best way for any team that trades for him to go. It would make it much easier to keep his $28 million new money average intact while also keeping the real new year cash flows down to around $22.5 million through 2026.

Below is what a theorized deal might look like that has two additional years added that also maintains a new money average of $28 million and a cash total of $22.5 million in both 2025 and 2026. The understanding would be that a team that acquires Adams would like to have him through the 2026 season. After that, he will likely retire or be cut at 34 years of age.

Assuming Adams wound up only seeing three years of a contract laid out like above, the dead money for 2027 would be just $4.928 million. Obviously, if a team that traded for Adams wanted to cut or trade him after the 2025 season, the dead money due would be just $7.392 million.

As far as full guarantees go in each of the two contract examples I laid out above, I can’t see the Steelers guaranteeing anything past 2024. Adams, however, might be able to get another team to fully guarantee his 2024 and 2025 amounts.

As you should be able to clearly see in my two examples, it should be easy for a team to get Adams to rework his current contract should they ultimately wind up trading for him, especially if that team winds up needing to give the kind of trade compensation that the Raiders appear to be asking for when it comes to Adams.

I feel obligated to end this post by letting all of you reading it know that Over the Cap currently has Adams’ valuation set at $16.483 million per year, which is obviously way lower than $28 million.

The purpose of my post is to work off unknown assumptions about Adams possibly wanting to maintain his $28 million new money average and an annual cash flow through 2026 of $22.5 million. Please keep that in mind. If a team can get Adams to rework his deal at lower numbers, they obviously will go that route. These examples in my post will also change every week moving forward that Adams remains with the Raiders because that will be another week of salary they are paying him for 2024.

The Steelers can certainly make it work when it comes to dealing for Adams, and we’ll now wait and see if they can be the team to complete a trade for him.