Davante Adams is on his fourth team since 2021 after signing with the Los Angeles Rams this past offseason. There are surely many reasons why he chose L.A., but the biggest one was likely the opportunity to play with Matthew Stafford.
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Adams was raised in the NFL with Aaron Rodgers, moved to the Raiders to play with his college quarterback, Derek Carr, then pushed for a trade to the Jets to reunite with Rodgers. Adams clearly values quarterback play above all.
And that’s a smart way to go about your business as a wideout. Youngsters, take note! Unfortunately, Stafford is a 37-year-old with the back of a 67-year-old. He didn’t participate in many offseason sessions or much of training camp as the team tried to make sure his back would hold up for opening day.
And it did. Stafford has surprisingly not missed a snap yet this season as the back has held up nicely. However, all that time off stunted his ability to build chemistry with new additions to the team, like Adams. As a result, while Puka Nacua, who’s been with Stafford three years now, was having a historic start to the season, Adams was still working on figuring things out with his QB.
“You come in expecting to have a certain product, but the reality is is it takes a lot of work. And it takes a lot of time to get on the same page. Obviously, he was battling an injury throughout camp, so we didn’t have some of that time to get on the same page. So, some of that came throughout the course of the season,” Adams said via Manningcast.
Even with the chemistry supposedly lacking from Adams’ point of view, he and Stafford actually got off to a pretty darn good start this year. Adams had six receptions for 106 yards and a TD on 13 targets in Week 2. He scored again in each of the next two weeks. In the following game, he had five receptions for 88 yards on 11 targets.
In Week 7, with Nacua out, he caught five balls for 35 yards and three TDs on eight targets. As Adams said, the QB-WR duo has now “kinda learned each other” and are “a lot more comfortable” together.
“I wouldn’t say we were as efficient as what I would like up until a couple weeks ago. With some of that work and even those game reps, I think we got to a much better place now where we’ve kinda learned each other. And we’re a lot more comfortable playing on the field together.”
The Rams allowed Cooper Kupp to depart in the offseason, but it certainly seems like they still found a way to upgrade at that WR2 position with another veteran in Adams. Puka Nacua will likely be back for the team’s Week 9 clash with the New Orleans Saints, but from what we’ve seen, that won’t affect Adams’ production or chemistry with Stafford all that much.
Nacua-Adams might just be the top WR duo in football right now, as Stafford knows how to feed both and keep both happy. There’s truly no QB better at that.
