When a team steeped in the positive design and implementation of the modern passing game puts decent money behind a veteran receiver who succeeded the year before in a passing game that was designed and executed more like a dumpster fire orchestra than a symphony, we should take notice.
That very well could have happened on Sunday, when the Los Angeles Rams signed veteran receiver Davante Adams to a two-year, $46 million contract with $26 million guaranteed. That puts the 32-year-old Adams in the low-middle tier of receiver deals, right there with Khalil Shakir, Darnell Mooney, and Gabe Davis. Nobody should cry for Adams, who got himself a five-year, $140 million contract back in 2022 after the Green Bay Packers traded him to the Las Vegas Raiders. That contract kept moving in 2024, when the Raiders traded Adams to the New York Jets.
That move reunited Adams with former Packers best buddy Aaron Rodgers, but to what effect? With Rodgers coming off the torn Achilles tendon that cost him all but a handful of snaps in the 2023 season, and "offensive coordinator" Nathanial Hackett running one of the most unhelpful and unimaginative passing games in the NFL, Adams still caught 85 passes on 135 targets for 1,063 yards and eight touchdowns for a team whose offense in general was terrible.
Now, Adams gets the benefit of Sean McVay, one of the game's most creative play-designers, and someone who's not afraid to self-scout. The Jets' passing game wasn't boring because Hackett had anything to say about it; it was boring because Rodgers doesn't like pre-snap motion, and had to be force-fed it during the tail end of his time in Green Bay.
But with Gang Green, and nothing but yes-men to design the playbook, Adams had to do his thing in static pre-snap designs, and he was still able to create more explosive plays in the passing game last season than you may remember.
Davante Adams was not given the benefit of being the target in motion on any of his 16 explosive receptions last season.
Guess who led the league with 50 targets in motion? Puka Nacua.
Guess who ranked fourth in the league with 41? Cooper Kupp. pic.twitter.com/0AOXkvMm36
— Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) March 9, 2025
As we just intimated, McVay is all about putting his receivers in advantageous situations with designed openings created by pre-snap motion. In fact, there may not be a better pre-snap route designed at any level of football. And as Adams will replace the likely-to-be-traded-or-released Cooper Kupp on the Rams' roster, it's worth looking at how Adams could be utilized in that role.
First of all, the Rams led all NFL teams last season in pre-snap motion rate at 69%. The Jets ranked 25th at 44%. And Kupp (when healthy) benefited greatly from those motion looks, especially when it was time for his own explosive plays - whether outside or from the slot.
If Davante Adams is to replace Cooper Kupp as the Rams' No. 1A receiver alongside Puka Nacua, imagine how changing the coverage strengths and responsibilities with motion will open things up for him. Because there was none of that in New York with Mr. Rodgers in charge. pic.twitter.com/FHOcUxrUE7
— Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) March 10, 2025
Moreover (and as my good friend Greg Cosell recently pointed out on the Ross Tucker Podcast), Adams should be a perfect fit in the compressed formations that McVay prefers.
Spot-on. The Jets didn't use condensed formations as often as the Rams did last season, but Adams proved to be quite adept at turning those into good gains with his spatial awareness. https://t.co/iuZFVjdlPDpic.twitter.com/JYgQL0OrO6
— Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) March 10, 2025
In addition, Adams is a fully-formed route-runner; there isn't anything he doesn't understand in that regard, and he's long been rightly praised as one of the NFL's most nuanced and effective route geniuses. He can put cornerbacks in purgatory with red zone slants, demolish zone defenses with in-cuts and dig routes, and make things very interesting for enemy defenders with his contested-catch ability in tight spaces, especially to either boundary on quick outs, sail routes, or fade balls.
Last season, the Rams and McVay won the NFC West and got all the way to the divisional round of the playoffs with a young, enterprising defense, the genius of quarterback Matthew Stafford, a highly effective power running game, and a receiver group led by Nacua and a version of Kupp who, sadly, just couldn't stay healthy, and wasn't nearly as effective as he had been in previous seasons. The last time Kupp played a full season was 2021, when he won the receiving Triple Crown with 178 catches, 2,425 yards, and 22 touchdowns.
Not that Adams is going to come close to any of that in 2025, but he's been pretty healthy over the last few seasons for his age, and availability is an ability when you're trying to put a receiver corps together. The big deal about this deal, however, is how much it appears that Davante Adams could fit perfectly into Sean McVay's offense, expanding things for all involved.
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This story was originally published March 9, 2025 at 5:45 PM.