Davante Adams is scheduled to become a free agent in the offseason. The Packers surely want to keep the star receiver.
If the sides can’t get a long-term deal done before free agency begins in March, the Packers have the franchise tag available to use on Adams.
That did not sound like a satisfactory option for Adams, who bit his tongue when asked about possibly being tagged this offseason.
“I’m not sure,” Adams said when asked how he’d handle that decision, via Bill Huber of SI.com. “I’m not sure how to answer that safely right now. So, we’ll just cross that bridge when we get to it. I’ll just say that. I like to be professional on here.”
Bucs receiver Chris Godwin is example A for why players shouldn’t want the tag. Godwin played this season under the franchise tag and tore his ACL in Week 15. He will enter free agency in March while rehabbing a knee that could keep him out of the start of the 2022 season.
The question is whether the Packers even can afford to use the franchise tag on Adams.
The one-year tag for a receiver projects to be $19.1 million for 2022, according to overthecap.com, and the Packers already are estimated to be $48.2 million over the salary cap for next season.
Adams wants to be the highest-paid receiver in football, something he has earned with the most receptions (575), most yards (7,137) and most touchdowns (69) in the NFL since the start of the 2016 season.