Adams ready to 'show the world' why Rodgers, Packers believe in him
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Davante Adams isn't allowing himself to be a rookie. Even if he wanted to, easing into the NFL was never an option for the Green Bay Packers' 21-year-old wide receiver.
The Packers' plan of elevating Jarrett Boykin to the No. 3 spot on the depth chart was derailed first by performance and then by injury. That left Adams, Green Bay's second-round pick less than five months ago, to be forced into a significant role in the offense.
Adams wouldn't have it any other way.
"You're not going to draft somebody in the second round for them to sit on the backburner," Adams said. "They're expecting you to come in and contribute right away. That's what they kind of said to me as soon as I got here, especially Aaron (Rodgers). I talked to him on draft day. He said 'there's no reason you can't come in here and contribute right away.'"
A conversation like that with Rodgers so soon after hearing his name called made Adams realize that he had to be ready. Before ever arriving in Green Bay for the first time, Adams already felt like he had his new quarterback believing in him. And the only way to have Rodgers keep the faith in him was to deliver on the field without an extended learning curve.
"He's not just going to say that to anyone," Adams said of his draft-day chat with Rodgers. "If they have confidence in me to bring me in here, with the type of receivers they have -- especially the type of receivers they've gotten in the second round, that means a lot to me.
"I have to go out there and prove to them and show the world why they brought me here."
In front of one of the league's largest viewing audiences of the season, Adams played only nine snaps Week 1 in Seattle. With no catches and no targets, it wasn't exactly the debut that Adams had hoped for. However, in that same game, the Packers were content with Boykin being covered by Seahawks All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman, and Rodgers completely avoided that side of the field. Boykin did very little in his 49 snaps to create separation from Sherman.
A week later at Lambeau Field, a red-zone drop from Boykin gave Adams his first real chance to star. With five catches for 50 yards against the New York Jets, including a 24-yard reception that led to a touchdown right before halftime, Adams began to make his case: rookie or not, he should be Green Bay's other outside starting receiver opposite Jordy Nelson.
Nelson had only seen a couple clips of Adams' time at Fresno State before meeting him back in May. Then Nelson saw Adams run a few routes and was instantly sold.
"Right away you see the body type and the quickness he has," Nelson said. "You can see that in drills and everything. You can kind of tell right away if the guy has good enough feet and how they catch the ball, what kind of player they are going to be. You could see that right off the bat with him. Very explosive. You could tell he was very talented and very athletic."
As Adams continued working with Nelson and Randall Cobb, both of whom were second-round picks themselves, he picked up new tricks.
"They've been a huge help, especially in the film room just correcting things I'm doing out there and giving pointers," Adams said. "I'm watching what they're doing. Sometimes I don't even have to say anything, it's just the way they're doing it. If it works for them, it's obviously been working for years.
"I steal from them all the time. I see Randall release on a certain guy. I see it worked and I'm going to try to use that. We all feed off of each other."
Adams scored his first career touchdown on a Thursday night national stage in Week 5. That just so happened to also be the 200th touchdown pass of Rodgers' career. Though Adams couldn't pick out a particular moment or drive that stood out to him as being his best work so far, that touchdown at Lambeau Field was the one that he recalled as being the best feeling he's had.
In Boykin's absence the past two games, Adams has played as much as 80 percent of the offensive snaps. The statistical production hasn't been great (a total of three catches for 29 yards and one touchdown in wins over Chicago and Minnesota), but Adams has been winning his routes.
"Davante, he's open on film a lot," Rodgers said. "He's run a lot of good routes. He only had one catch last week, but as long as he stays confident and keeps making plays like he is in practice, the ball is going to keep coming his way."
With Nelson and Cobb accounting for 68 percent of the offense's receiving yards through five games, head coach Mike McCarthy knows that defenses will worry more about those two than they will about Adams. That's when a breakout-type game could take place for Adams.
"I really like the way he's taken advantage of his opportunities," McCarthy said. "I think he's doing a good job versus the one-on-ones and I think he'll have opportunities come Sunday (in Miami against the Dolphins)."
It's in that upcoming game Sunday in Miami that Boykin is expected to miss his third consecutive game with a groin injury. That means more work for Adams.
In its simplest form, Adams replaced James Jones in the Packers' wide receiver group. Not that Jones was ever an All-Pro caliber player, but it's easier to depend on an eight-year veteran with more than 4,000 career receiving yards than it is a rookie who was an early entrant into the draft.
But as Green Bay so often does under general manager Ted Thompson, the Packers went the youth route with Adams. With a team-building strategy like that, the only way for the offense to not take a step back is if Adams can be just as good this season as Jones would have been had Green Bay opted to re-sign him.
"Like Coach EB (Edgar Bennett) says all the time, he says, 'yeah, it's your first year, but you're not a rookie,'" Adams said. "That has a certain meaning behind it. Of course, I'm a rookie in looks, but at the same time you can't make those rookie mistakes being a pro here. You have to live up to a certain level of play that everyone has been doing around here for a long time. Jordy and Randall both came in making statements early, so I feel like, why can't I?"
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