Davante Adams was the Green Bay Packers leading receiver against Detroit. He caught 10 balls for 79 yards.
That first statistic is pretty nice. That second one is only nice if you achieved it on half as many receptions. In reality, Adams averaged a pathetic 7.9 yards per reception and that puts him in DickRodge territory.
What’s more, Adams was targeted 21 times.
Were all 21 of those balls ones he should have caught? No, but a lot more than 10 of them were.
Our boy Steffen has been all over this and yesterday, Football Outsiders put together a piece demonstrating just how bad Adams was against the Lions.
The problem is, it doesn’t appear to just be a one-game issue.
Adams was supposed to break out this year. That hasn’t happened and it now seems clear it isn’t going to happen. The Packers drafted Adams in the second round, thinking he’d be a future star. He might be a nice third receiver, but he’s shown nothing to suggest he’ll be a star.
He’s not fast, he can’t separate from coverage, he can’t win the jump ball and he doesn’t even appear to be a great route runner or pass catcher.
Adams looks like a lesser version of a young James Jones.
Against Detroit, the Packers went to Adams so much because he was supposedly being covered by a bunch of schlubs. With starter Rashean Mathis out, the Lions were covering Adams with a couple guys named Nevin Lawson and Crezdon Butler.
Who are they again?
Exactly.
Yet, Adams couldn’t consistently win those one-on-one match-ups and when he did, he often couldn’t make the catch.
Take a look at these clips, again, courtesy of Football Outsiders.
Example one: Adams doesn’t have the speed to catch up to the pass (or separate from the defender to begin with).
Example two: A perfectly placed pass and Adams can’t track the ball and make the catch.
Example three: A poorly run route, where he can’t get any separation from the corner, then makes a flailing, falling attempt to catch the pass.
Example four: Perfectly thrown ball — Aaron Rodgers threw Adams open because he wasn’t — and he still can’t make the play.
What you’re seeing here is a receiver who not only lacks speed and athleticism, but isn’t even very good at the fundamentals.
The guy can’t track the ball or catch it half the time and his route running leaves a lot to be desired.
We now know Adams isn’t going be a fast or athletic receiver. He isn’t going to be Jordy Nelson. Maybe he can get better at the other aspects of the game, but he’s below average at this point.
15 Comments
The guy was fucken horrible on Sunday, BUT he’s been injured this season and missed a lot of time also.
That 2nd video is not a bad route, he just dropped it. Did he have a good game? No. Will he get better? Yes.
He needs practice, practice, and more practice. This guy could be a slightly better James Jones but he needs to be more consistent. Gotta give him a bit of a break because of the injury and also the fact it takes a few years for receivers to really blossom in this offense. Even Jordy and Cobb needed time to really blow up.
Those videos tell all. Injury my ass. If he is injured that bad then throw Janis the fuck out there instead. Its bullshit how Davante is playing. I can’t wait for Ty Monty to get his ass back on the field.
Why did Rodgers target this guy so much? Cobb was open most of the time as Shawn has shown us in his earlier game view breakdown. Something is up. Rodgers looked almost exclusively for Adams! Just strange how this is playing out! And Janis gets nothing, when he has been in there, Rodgers hardly looks his way. In fact, he made Rodgers look good a few games ago with two catches that were NOT thrown well at all, and had great YAC on both of those catches. Is Rodgers playing the “favorites” game as well as Buffoon does? It seems possible using these examples . . .
Well put Monty, he is terrible.
MMTT, they targeted Adams, because of the matchup. Its obvious, dude should be able to beat a 6th and 7th string CB….but he didn’t. If Cobb was open, he didn’t have time to find it.
Playing detroit was also the perfect time to force some confidence into Adams…but he wasn’t freaking having it.
Ever notice how Jordy ALWAYS catches the ball with hands? And how Davante catches the ball with his body, like Jermicheal used to? That game-tying 2 point conversion attempt was dropped because he failed to reach his hands to the ball and the defender had an easy stretch to knock it out. Larry Bird’s dad does not approve of Davante’s fundamentals.
It’s not Adam’s fault, Ted Thompson refuses to draft any receivers with sides and speed. Outside of Jordy we don’t have size and speed. I mean look at how all of our receivers are clones of each other. Montgomery=Cobb, Adams and Abby=young JJ. Now the only receiver with size and speed is Janis but we refuse to play him.
They should have never moved Edgar Bennett out of the receiving coach position. That messed up everything.
Right on Deepsky. Why the fuck is the mudder coaching these wideouts? Mudder only caught fuckin screens back in the day (and many of them from Bert).
Ted Thompson is an average C grade talent evaluator. He’s only good at drafting quantity not quality, especially mid to low draft picks/ undrafted free agents.
I hate pages like this. Bashing the team as if you have a real fix. It’s shameful that you call yourselves Packers fans. Mike knows what he’s doing. Can’t believe I even have to say this, but Thompson knows what he’s doing. Tom knows what he’s doing. Regardless of what most of you like to believe, Dom knows what he’s doing. Read some Ask Vic (http://www.packers.com/news-and-events/article-ask-vic/article-1/Biggest-game-of-the-season-to-date/7bcc4220-20eb-44f0-bbf3-66ad5b48e499), sit back, and just relax. Things are beginning to heat up.
In the 2014 NFL Draft my top 3 list of favorite receivers did not include Davante Adams. My list was as follows:
#1 Sammy Watkins, Clemson
#2 Odell Beckham, LSU
#3 Allen Robinson, Penn St
#3 (Robinson) was drafted after the Packers already selected Adams in the second round. Robinson has proven to be a stud WR (93 catches, over 1300 yds and 9 TDs) in the NFL for the lowly Jaguars franchise.
Too bad our GM disagreed with my pecking order.
How about Adams now. Dude is trash.