Davante Adams says of leaving Packers: ‘It wasn’t some big crazy breakup’

Maybe if things had ended differently with the Packers, perhaps a little less amicably, Davante Adams would have a different mindset before the “Monday Night Football” matchup against his former team.

As breakups go, though, the split from the team that drafted and developed him into one of the NFL’s best wide receivers was more cordial than acrimonious.

“We ended in a good place,” Adams, who played eight seasons in Green Bay, said Wednesday. “It wasn’t some big crazy breakup.”

It also delivered Adams to his desired landing spot with the Raiders — the team he grew up rooting for — and to a city ideally situated to allow his Bay Area family and friends to come watch him play.

Adams got what he wanted by essentially demanding to be traded. And the Packers, who had applied their 2022 franchise tag to Adams, obliged and sent him to the Raiders in March 2022 for a first- and second-round draft pick.

Given all that, Adams takes no malice into the game at Allegiant Stadium. This isn’t a revenge situation or a chance to stick it to his former bosses, many of whom he stays in contact with.

More than anything else, it’s a chance to win an important football game — albeit against a bunch of players, coaches and executives for whom good feelings remain intact.

“A lot of love and respect,” Adams said. “Mutual love and respect.”

Adams did not practice Thursday while dealing with a shoulder injury he suffered against the Chargers on Sunday. The shoulder, he said, is “getting better every day.”

Knowing how much he hates taking a practice rep off, let alone a game, it’s hard to imagine he won’t play Monday.

“I’m not going to make any big prognostications in terms of that,” coach Josh McDaniels said. “But (he’s) working at it, doing everything he can to get himself where he wants to be.”

Added Adams, who has played against every NFL team except the Packers during his 10-year career: “It’ll be fun.”

But the goodwill ends at kickoff.

“Once the game starts, it’s just like every other game,” he said. “It’s not gonna be a whole lot of emotion and all that other stuff tied up in it.”

Adams makes no secret about the role Green Bay has played in his life or the appreciation he has for the Packers, who helped turn a second-round pick from Fresno State into a star. The gratitude will always remain.

But there is little room for that Monday.

“I’m not looking too deep into that as it pertains to that stuff,” Adams said. “It’s more just enjoying the opportunity to see old faces … and obviously play against a team I’ve never played against.”

The Raiders are looking to stop a three-game losing streak and keep intact any hope of a positive season. To do so, their struggling offense needs to get untracked and play a complete game, not just in spurts.

The franchise has invested heavily on offense, featuring two stars in Adams and running back Josh Jacobs, and a supporting cast of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and receivers Hunter Renfrow and Jakobi Meyers.

Adams is convinced the solution to fixing the issue isn’t complex.

“It’s getting the call and executing it,” he said. “It’s just a matter of being one out there on the field and having all 11 connected to be one. We haven’t had that … 10 guys do it right and one guy does it wrong. Or nine or whatever. Everything but 11, consistently.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow@VinnyBonsignore on X.