Whenever Davante Adams is finished being Aaron Rodgers’ houseguest, he won’t be looking for a short-term rental.
It was apparent Wednesday that Rodgers and Adams — who built one of the best quarterback-receiver connections in NFL history with the Packers — are thrilled to be reunited with the Jets.
More significantly, Adams indicated that he is looking at his trade from the Raiders to the Jets as the start of a multiyear relationship instead of a one-season proposition.
“I hope so. That’s the plan,” Adams said. “I never go somewhere in hopes of having to find a new home.”
Adams, a six-time Pro Bowler with five 1,000-yard seasons, is expected to make his Jets debut Sunday after missing the last three weeks with a hamstring injury.
The absence coincided with his trade request and “essentially” telling the Raiders that he wanted to play for the Jets so that he no longer had a “helpless feeling.”
“It’s been a roller coaster, for sure,” Adams said. “It’s a weird thing to say that I’m happy, but obviously it was time for a change. We’re in a better place. I think the Raiders are in a better place, as well, and everybody can move on.”
Not long after the Jets lost to the Bills on Monday night, Rodgers let a call from Adams go to voicemail because he was too angry. Less than an hour later, around 1 a.m., Rodgers answered Adams’ second attempt.
“He said he was getting on a plane and just kind of my heart dropped, and I was like, ‘To where?’ ” Rodgers said. “And he said ‘New York.’ I knew there was interest, but I knew that there were a lot of other things in play.”
The Jets traded a conditional third-round pick and took on all of Adams’ remaining $11.59 million salary in 2024.
He has two more non-guaranteed years at $35.6 million apiece remaining on his contract.
“Having [Rodgers] as my quarterback again, he’s part of why I am who I am,” Adams said. “Whether it’s the cerebral approach, the attention to detail, and just learning from watching him operate and how dialed in he is at all times, I think that has a lot to do with how I ended up functioning the way I do as a player.”
Adams, 31, called Monday “a whirlwind.” He flew a red-eye to New York before the trade was completed and was in the Jets facility for a physical and playbook tutoring Tuesday morning.
Todd Downing is calling plays in offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett’s system, which is rooted in what Adams and Rodgers were running under Hackett with the Packers.
“Went right into some of the [offensive] signals and he was about 95 percent [accurate] and he knows kind of the original to the second iteration, to the third on down,” Rodgers said. “So his knowledge of the game is pretty extensive. Obviously looks like he drank the elixir from the fountain of youth.”
By Wednesday morning, Rodgers and Adams were seated next to each other in a team meeting, as they often were with the Packers from 2014-21.
“I turned to him and just said, ‘Man, how crazy is this?’ ” Rodgers said. “Something that when we get together in the offseasons, we joke about, but it never seemed like a possibility or going to happen.”
Adams put Rodgers through the ringer by making him talk through Monday’s loss to the Bills before sharing his flight itinerary.
“I wanted to get a feel for him and see where his mind was,” Adams said. “It definitely put him in a much better mood when I let him know. … A lot of the success me and Aaron had is because we are on the same page, whether it was a signal he gave and we changed the play, or knowing when the ball is going to come out.”
Adams has relationships with Jets receivers Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard. He texted Lazard a picture of the Jets facility entrance before the trade was official.
“About time,” Lazard said of his reaction. “It was quite a long time ago, but I coined the phrase ‘top-two, not two” [receiver] when talking about Davante. As relevant as it was then, it still is today.”
Adams said he and Wilson talked last year about wishing they could play together.
Rodgers called Wilson “a budding superstar.”
“Here we are now,” Adams said. “We just have to maximize this and take advantage of it.”
Adams was a full participant in Wednesday’s walk-through.
“Definitely I’ll be able to roll. It felt good running around,” Adams said. “Brushing up on the system, which I’ve got down for the most part.”