This isn’t the kind of place you’d expect an NFL coach to request a dinner tutorial on the finer points of his release technique from a future Hall of Fame receiver.
Yet it was here last spring that Davante Adams displayed some of the moves for Sean McVay that would ultimately propel the 12-year veteran into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“We didn’t get very many looks,” McVay recalled. “I think people were like, ‘That’s some cool (stuff) in there.'”
Adams joked that McVay’s “elite” status and the coach’s access to the club put him in a position that did not receive much attention. So two “football experts or football nerds” who “think about the game in a very complex way” can engage in shop talk.
“Basically,” Adams said, “I had to make some of these plays live before I got the opportunity to run some routes.”
Eleven games into his first season with the Rams, Adams has been larger than life for opposing defensive coordinators.
The three-time All-Pro has 48 catches for 631 yards and a league-leading 12 touchdowns for a Rams team that is 9-2 heading into Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.
With six games left, Adams is six touchdowns away from the career-best 18 touchdowns he scored for the Green Bay Packers in 2020, when he was teaming with four-time NFL Most Valuable Player Aaron Rodgers.
Adams is helping Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford enjoy an MVP-caliber season. Nearly half of Stafford’s league-leading 30 touchdown passes have gone to Adams, often from inside the five-yard line.
Both the legends have improved their timing during practice and interaction.
“We’re just trying to find little nuances in the game to help us get better and help us be successful,” Stafford said.
The 32-year-old Adams has been considered one of the NFL’s elite pass rushers ever since he was selected by the Packers in the second round of the 2014 draft out of Fresno State.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
The formula for his release from the line of scrimmage?
“It’s not an algorithm or anything,” he said, laughing.
Adams studies opponents’ videos and factors such as body type, experience, skill set and tendencies among other traits. Walk-throughs before practice are essential to help them go through the steps that will enable them to deceive defenders at full speed during a game, he said.
“When we’re going half speed, it allows me to slow down, really linger and then let the guy see what I’m trying to show him versus me just knowing it,” he said, “The faster you go, it can benefit you, but it can also harm you if you don’t take into account the details of the route and sell what you’re trying to sell.”
The games become chess matches with the cornerbacks.
“It’s just a big mind game,” he said. “A lot of people don’t pay attention to it like I do. I think that gives me a big edge.”
Fellow receiver Puka Nakua took notice.
“He’s been playing a chess game the whole game,” Nakua said.
So Adams welcomed the opportunity to share some of his techniques and ideas with McVay, even in a supper club setting.
“All the routes and the things that make a great receiver, I’m completely immersed in that,” Adams said. He added, “It wasn’t anything crazy. … It wasn’t a big show.”
But McVay, Adams, Stafford and the Rams’ offense have made it one.
“It’s great,” McVay said, “to see it come to life in a Rams uniform.”
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