The Brilliant Development of Davante Adams
From a liability to one of the top receiving weapons in the game, Davante Adams’ career arc has been special. From the highly regarded wide receiver draft class of 2014 (which includes big names such as Odell Beckham, Mike Evans, Sammy Watkins, Jarvis Landry, Brandin Cooks, Allen Robinson, and Martavis Bryant), not many people expected Adams to make a name for himself among the best players at the position after a disastrous start to his career.
Adams started off his career with the Green Bay Packers as a player who struggled to create consistent separation. And even when he did, his stone hands would constantly drop whatever Aaron Rodgers was tossing to him.
Against the odds, Adams went from an anchor to a solid option in 2016, to a very good receiver in 2017, to one of the position’s elite players in 2018.
In 2018, Adams finished tied for sixth in receptions (111), seventh in receiving yards (1,386) and tied for second in touchdowns (13). In fantasy, he was even more of a stud, as he finished with the third most fantasy points of any wide receiver, according to FantasyData.
Would you look at that? Adams was just 1.1 fantasy points away from Antonio Brown’s mark, and finished higher than coveted prizes like DeAndre Hopkins, Julio Jones, Adam Thielen, Mike Evans and Michael Thomas.
Adams also finished first in red zone fantasy points….
…as well as first in fantasy points on third downs!
So, it goes without saying that Adams had a fantastic season from a statistical standpoint, and I’m happy to say that the same was also true for his tape. Once an unrefined, struggling receiver, Adams’ efforts to polish his route running abilities have been extremely successful, yielding what is now one of the game’s most dangerous receivers.
We can establish that Adams, by all means, should be picked early in fantasy dynasty drafts, particularly in the second round, but just what is it that makes his style of play so appealing? Let’s take a look at the film breakdown section of this write up below!
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We start this section of the article with Adams in the slot against Detroit. He’s running a corner route on this particular play.
What’s really impressive about this play is how quickly Adams is able to separate from the DB. After taking a hop towards his foe…
…Adams changes his angle quickly, and his turn of direction allows Rodgers to make the connection on the corner route.
Let’s see how it looks in full motion.
Adams’ agility on his route breaks is just part of what makes him such an appealing receiver to watch. He’s also managed to turn himself into a monster against man coverage.
Adams’ struggles in his early career were the result of pretty basic route running. He always had the agility and elusiveness, but in addition to drops, his inability to sell his routes shut himself down pretty easily. Adams took that to heart because now he’s consistently done a wonderful job selling his routes with all sorts of subtle movements.
Take this simple go route vs. the quick jam for example. Seattle is using Cover 1 here.
Initially the corner’s efforts to jam Adams work because he’s able to stay with the receiver as he continues to run his route. Somewhere along the way, however…
…Adams is finally able to separate from the corner…
…and Rodgers throws a bomb to him for a big play. But how exactly did Adams create separation when the corner was initially right with him stride for stride? Let’s investigate below.
If you look really close, you can see that Adams slightly hesitates on this route. It’s hard to notice with the naked eye, but you can just barely make out his hip movement aiming towards Rodgers for a brief moment. That brief moment allows Adams to bait the corner, granting him tons of separation.
It’s these little moments that have transformed Adams into such a fantastic route runner. Let’s take a look at one more example before ending this write up.
On this play, Adams is once again facing press coverage.
This play also happens to feature one of Adams’ best routes on the season. He sells the slant route…
…and suddenly turns it into a quick corner route. The pass from Rodgers is underthrown…
…but Adams is able to make a nice, tight catch to further move the chains.
The footwork, of course, is what sells this route from Adams. The combination of hesitance and quick jabs followed by the receiver’s swim move on his cut grant him the separation he seeks.
Davante Adams’ development into a legitimate WR1 resulted from him doing his homework, analyzing what he did wrong early in his career and refining his footwork to the ability of the sharpest route runners in all of football. He doesn’t have the biggest catch radius in the league, but makes up for it with his sensational ability against man and press coverage.
This is no longer a player who can be considered a product of Aaron Rodgers; instead, this is an explosive playmaker, one of today’s finest route runners and, in general, best receivers. Don’t hesitate to draft Adams with your second round pick.
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