Chris Simms braces for Davante Adams to skip Chargers-Raiders - “It’s f**king Easton Stick”
Davante Adams is questionable with an illness. And Keenan Allen has already been ruled out of Thursday Night Football's game between the Chargers and the Raiders. Speaking on Thursday's edition of Pro Football Talk, NFL analyst Chris Simms explored both players' mindset to skip the primetime showdown.
Regarding Allen's absence, he said,
"[00:03:12] My first thought was he like, kind of just read the room and went 'what? We saw our coach is getting fired?' and 'What? It's f**king Easton Stick at quarterback? Yeah, my heel hurts a lot, Coach."
"... I can't run.' I'm certainly not accusing Keenan Allen... but those are the thoughts that are going to go through players' minds in this type of game."
Simms, regarding Adams, went on to say,
"Davante Adams, what's he looking at? 'We scored zero points last week. Everybody's talking about [how] I'm trade bait. After the year I might be going to the Jets or somewhere else...'
"What's his incentive of going out there tonight and catching a ball over the middle and getting his head knocked off? [00:03:56]"
Has Keenan Allen or Davante Adams been better this year?
Despite missing this week's game, Keenan Allen has proven to be a step above the Raiders' top wide receiver this season. Allen has racked up 108 catches for 1243 yards and seven touchdowns. Meanwhile, Adams has earned just 76 catches for 867 yards and four touchdowns.
Of course, one big caveat to this has been the QB situation. Putting Week 14 aside, Justin Herbert has played every game this season. Meanwhile, the Raiders started the year with a different head coach and QB than they have right now. The Raiders cut ties with Josh McDaniels in November, leaving Antonio Pierce with the head coaching duties.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Garoppolo was benched and replaced by rookie QB Aidan O'Connell. Most agree that although Herbert hasn't been at his peak this year, it has been better than the QB situation of the Raiders.
Still, Allen has beat out Adams by roughly 50% in receiving yards and touchdowns, giving plenty of fans reason to back Allen over Adams.
If any of the above quotes are used, credit Pro Football Talk and H/T Sportskeeda.