Davante Adams is moving forward but not without looking back. Now a wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams, Adams is opening up about his messy split with the Las Vegas Raiders, offering rare insight into what ultimately pushed him to force a departure from a team that never quite met his expectations.

“I see that still right now,” Adams said. “And it hurts because, as a person who's a good guy at heart, you want people to think and feel good things about you at all times, especially when that's who you are, you know, to your core. So it would be a shame if people walk around thinking that I'm some diva or, you know, looking for attention or whatever it is that they think that's not accurate. So it does bother me to a certain extent, but I got to this point in my life by not caring truly what people think about me and not letting that have any bearing on how I move forward.”

Adams’ departure from Las Vegas came amid a turbulent 2023 season, where tensions between the All-Pro receiver and the organization frequently spilled into public view. While Adams never explicitly demanded a trade, his discontent was no secret. He ultimately finished the season with the New York Jets, his preferred destination at the time, before signing a two-year deal with the Rams this offseason.

Davante Adams is getting a fresh start with the Rams

Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams (17) is stopped by Los Angeles Chargers safety Alohi Gilman (32) after a compete pass in the first half at SoFi Stadium.
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The move to Los Angeles has offered a fresh start. Adams has already spoken glowingly about his new team, saying he feels “rejuvenated” and energized heading into 2025. Rams head coach Sean McVay has embraced that sentiment, calling Adams’ early impact “tremendous.”

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“For Davante to say that, that means the world to me,” McVay told team reporter J.B. Long. “He feels appreciated, and the guys appreciate the way he moves and pours into the locker room. He’s been a great teammate.”

Adams, 32, is coming off a 2024 campaign where he posted 85 catches for 1,063 yards and eight touchdowns across stints with the Raiders and Jets. Despite the chaos of the past year, he remains one of the NFL’s most consistent receivers—surpassing 1,000 yards in six of the last seven seasons.

As for those still questioning his motives?

” I love if you think good things, but if you can't take a deep enough dive and be realistic enough with even the small amounts of evidence you have about my situation,” Adams said. “If you can't take that and make sense of it, why I feel the way I do or I made the decisions I made or certain calls were made, then that's not the opinion that I care about anyway.”