RP Clips: Davante Adams, the Ageless Wonder

James Koh (0:00)

This is Reception Perception, The Show. Now, James Koh and Matt Harmon.

Matt Harmon (0:06)

Let's end on a positive note here. Davante Adams, the last two games with Pooka Nakua out for LA has been an absolute stud. And it's so fun to see.

There was a lot of questions as to, okay, has the guy lost not just a step, but maybe two or three steps after that long road trip in Australia, and he has bounced back in a big time way. I will say the 190-yard game or whatever he had in week number two. All right, that's against the Giants, right? And the Giants were depleted, their offense was non-functional, the Brian Burns was banged up. But I thought in week number three, when you're talking about Denver, man, like this was vintage Davante Adams, and I thought he looked awesome.

James Koh (0:50)

Vintage Davante Adams.

Man, he's just been so, so, so good. And even running downfield routes, too. And this was something in his 2025 profile, where he did not run a lot of go routes. But when he did, he still had a really high success rate. And you're seeing that again this year, not running a ton of go routes, but still able to get separation even against Patrick Sertan. And, you know, Patrick Sertan and him have history, right? Because Davante was with the Raiders for two years, so they saw each other a lot. And it's just like, yeah, Davante still knows all the tricks of the trade, can get open against man coverage. This has been one of my favorite receiver storylines of the season so far. And I feel like it's going to continue because I don't know what the deal with Pukka Naku is. There's a lot of just kind of weirdness about that injury. Terrence Ferguson now, oh, it was a low ankle sprain, but now it's higher. You know, it's kind of creeping up to a mid ankle sprain. He's going to miss week four.

You know, maybe he misses more time. The guys behind Davante Adams are, you know, Konata Mumpfield, I chart a little bit of his, didn't get to finish it yet, but I did start charting his week three game. You know, solid, dirty work receiver, who's actually really crafty and a nice route runner, but just doesn't have a lot of juice. So there's not a lot of separation ability. Like he doesn't really, he's a good route runner, but doesn't necessarily separate consistently. You know, he's one of those players, but yeah, man, I think he's interesting as a complimentary guy, but it's going to be Matthew Stafford, Davante Adams over and over again, going forward for this team until Pugunakua can get back. And Adams looks great. Adams looks as not as good as ever. I'm not going to say that, but looks as good, if not maybe even a little bit better than he did last year.

Matt Harmon (2:31)

I mean, the guy's averaging nearly 20 yards per reception, 3.4 yards per route run, which is just insane, mind blowing stuff for a wide receiver in his mid thirties. Like what is happening right now? A lot of obviously credit can be given to both the play designer in Sean McVeigh and the quarterback play in Matt Stafford. I think Stafford's been playing incredibly good football. But yeah, man, it's the old man unit of Matt Stafford and Davante Adams just eaten right now. Look, I know the times are good, Matt. The times are good right now. But I still truly firmly believe that they need another answer at wide receiver.

Running out Konata Mumpfield, Tutu Atwell and Jordan Whittington when he's healthy and he's been dealing with a lot of health issues this year. I just don't that's just not enough. I mean, when we're talking about trying to go win a Super Bowl, I just I do not think I firmly believe that is not enough. I'd love for them to make another wide receiver move.

James Koh (3:33)

Yeah, I do agree with you on that part where it's not enough to win a Super Bowl. It's enough to be pretty good in the regular season. And this fragility was a big part of like I picked the Seahawks on football 301 to win the NFC West. And yeah, I mean, this is, I just think they're a better team there. They have more counterpunches. They're less fragile. And that's kind of where I've seen from the Rams so far. Now, I mean, it's just, when you look at where Adams wins, it's so much on, yes, the go routes, like it's a sprinkle, but this is why you gotta love these offenses where it's just so many breaking routes. It's slants, it's crossers, it's digs, it's outs. I do think Adams, the area that maybe he struggles on is kind of, and this, I think, is something you see with aging receivers when they lose the athleticism, even the craft and the route running, like stopping down and like throttling down when they're running vertical routes to separate on comebacks and curls. Definitely haven't seen that as consistently with Adams, but in terms of, hey, deception and planting his foot in the ground and creating separation on the ins and outs, that's really been still awesome for Adams getting off the line quickly into his slants. That's been still really good. So ultimately, yeah, I mean, Adams is a stud. I think he's capable of being the wide receiver one for this team and carrying the load as long as he can stay healthy. He's a 34 year old receiver in December. Can he stay healthy all throughout the course of the season?