NFL executive shares his concerns on Rams signing of WR Davante Adams
The big move for the Los Angeles Rams in free agency was the signing of wide receiver Davante Adams. While signing Adams was an exciting move and one that will hopefully help get the Rams over the top, it doesn’t come without risks either. Having Adams three years ago would have been nice. Entering his age 33 season, it’s fair to wonder how much he has left and if the Rams made the Allen Robinson mistake three years after they made it the first time.
That isn’t to say that Adams will be a free agent bust or can’t have success with the Rams. Adams will be playing with the best quarterback that he’s had since he left the Green Bay Packers and that version of Aaron Rodgers. Since then, Adams has dealt with Derek Carr, Jimmy Garoppolo, Aidan O’Connell, Gardner Minshew, and others. Stafford is without question better than any of those players.
With that said, the success of free agents is often due to scheme and personnel fit. The Athletic’s Mike Sando recently polled NFL executives around the league on free agency to get their unfiltered thoughts. Said Sando,
“The decision to add Davante Adams after releasing Cooper Kupp was interesting because Adams does not fit the typical mold of a Rams receiver. He’s a traditional X, not known for his blocking…Some also wondered how Adams would fit in McVay’s scheme, which often puts receivers in condensed sets and features them as blockers. Could Adams evolve the way Larry Fitzgerald did later in his career? One exec found that unlikely. “Larry was willing to get rugged, block, do some dirty work over the middle.”
While that is a valid concern, if the Rams utilize Adams in the “X” role, the ability to block becomes less important. This is the role that the Rams had Demarcus Robinson play in last season and he was largely ineffective as a blocker in the run game. If the Rams utilize more 12 personnel, those responsibilities with also fall on the tight ends and Puka Nacua.
However, it’s not just the fit that raises some concerns. There is also some concern with Adams’ age and the player that he is at this stage in his career. As noted by The Reception Perception’s Matt Harmon,
“The most concerning result for Adams is the 77% success rate vs. zone coverage. That’s a pretty significant dropoff from his 84.4% success rate vs. zone from the previous season. We’ve seen big dips in success rate vs. zone being the first warning sign toward a decline for perimeter receivers…That the overall drop in success rate vs. zone is attributed to the body naturally slowing down and losing burst.”
One NFL executive had similar concerns and noticed that drop-off and ability to get open. “Davante is a little better separator (than Kupp), but there has been a drop-off in his ability to get consistently open,” another exec said.
What doesn’t get brought up enough in all this is how the Rams seemed to lock in on Adams and have a plan for him. That wasn’t the case with Allen Robinson. The Rams only moved to Robinson because they missed out on Von Miller. In that case, it was Stafford and Kupp advocating for Robinson and the Rams obliged. This time around, it was McVay doing a lot of the recruitment work, going as far as sending narrated highlights to Adams.
That shows that McVay has a plan for Adams and has a clear vision for how he wants to use the former New York Jets wide receiver in his offense. While Adams may not be the same player that he was in his prime, even if he’s 75 or 80 percent of that player, that’s still a top-25 wide receiver in the NFL with elite flashes.
The signing of Davante Adams is an easy one to get excited for heading into the 2025 season. While there are concerns, it’s also hard to see it not working out.
