The San Francisco 49ers may be kicking themselves even harder for not pursuing star wide receiver Davante Adams more aggressively when he was a free agent during the offseason.
Adams said the Niners courted him after his tenure with the New York Jets, although the six-time Pro Bowler felt lowballed and disrespected by the offer made by general manager John Lynch and Co., which paralleled San Francisco's high-profile cost-cutting and age-reducing efforts entering 2025.
"I was entertaining the Niners, but they were like, 'We’re paying wholesale. We ain’t paying retail,'" Adams told The Athletic's Mike Silver last spring. "I didn’t talk to them, but that’s what my agent told me — like five times, that quote. And I was like, 'OK, well, I’m not a wholesale-type dude.'"
Instead, the Northern California native signed a two-year, $44 million deal with the 49ers' NFC West rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, and Adams will now have a shot at making the Niners regret the lowball efforts.
Davante Adams would love to haunt 49ers in Week 5 NFC West showdown
Hindsight certainly points at San Francisco regretting not pursuing Adams more aggressively last spring, particularly with No. 1 wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk not poised to return until the second half of the season after last year's MCL and ACL tears.
Fellow top receivers, Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings, have both been banged up over the first four weeks, and both will miss the 49ers' Thursday Night Football showdown against Adams and the Rams in Week 5 because of injuries.
With all the injury-related setbacks, including quarterback Brock Purdy (toe) ruled out, the Niners' starting receivers may very well be Demarcus Robinson and Kendrick Bourne, who have played a combined four games for San Francisco this season.
Adams could have potentially been in the mix, too.
Granted, the 49ers couldn't have known both Pearsall and Jennings would have been dealing with frequent injuries over the first four weeks of 2025, and Lynch and Co. needed to trim costs anyway. Had he signed, Adams would have likely needed to accept a low-budget offer, which he wasn't inclined to do.
To date, the 32-year-old receiver already has 269 yards and three touchdowns on 17 receptions, and he'll aim to pad those numbers against a banged-up Niners squad when the two teams face off on Thursday night.