Davante Adams scored 14 touchdowns this season, the third time that the future Hall of Fame receiver led the NFL in that category in his career, and a feather in the cap for Rams general manager Les Snead for giving Matthew Stafford the goal line receiving weapon that L.A. needed to add last year. However, aside from those 14 touchdowns, and aside from how many of those scores happened over a month ago (all of them), Adams has been the target of 54 incomplete passes and would have stats similar to Jerry
Jeudy, Brian Thomas Jr., and Darius Slayton.
Adams has been called the best red zone weapon in the NFL, but that only matters today if Adams brings back the goal line magic from Weeks 7-12 (when he scored 8 of his 14 touchdowns) against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship game. Otherwise, Stafford may need to stop throwing so many incomplete passes to Adams and start favoring other weapons on the Rams’ offense.
Adams came up with one of the biggest catches for Stafford in the Rams’ win over the Bears last week, saving L.A. in overtime with a sideline catch that doubled his receiving total for the game. But should Stafford be favoring tight end Colby Parkinson as his number two receiver over Adams, just like he did in Chicago?
Even though the Rams gave Adams a $25 million guarantee on his two-year contract last year, Snead will have to consider if the team needs to once again go out and find another new starter in 2026 based on Adams’ play outside of the 4-yard line and in the last few months.
Where Adams has excelled
Adams INSIDE THE 4:
15 targets (1st), 9 touchdowns (1st)
Davante Adams has six more targets from the 4-yard line or closer than any other player. He has three more touchdowns in that range than any other player (Dallas Goedert has six). And six more touchdowns than the player (Amon-Ra St. Brown) than the guy in third place.
Great!
However, it’s merely true that three of those touchdowns came in Week 7 against the Jaguars and two more came in L.A.‘s very next game against the Saints. That’s 5 of those 9 touchdowns in two weeks. He did it one time each in the next three games after the Saints. That’s 8 of the 9 touchdowns in 5 games.
How does that help the Rams ON SUNDAY unless Stafford can find Adams at the goal line for a score again…for the first time that Adams has scored any touchdown November 30th. Adams scored 0 touchdowns in December and is looking for his first touchdown in the playoffs.
Actually, it’s been 5 years since Davante Adams has scored a postseason touchdown.
Where Adams will need to help Stafford
If the Seahawks defense doesn’t fear Davante Adams, it will allow Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald to put an extra body on Puka Nacua in the NFC Championship game.
Adams SEASON TOTALS:
60 catches, 789 yards (56 yards per game), 14 TD (1st)
Not bad numbers for a 33-year-old, but I’m intentionally showing you a stat line that would look good for a 33-year-old receiver. I’m hiding the stats that would make you question the value of these targets.
Adams OUTSIDE THE 4-YARD LINE:
99 targets, 51 yards (51%), 770 yards, 5 TD
Although Adams is 35th in targets in this category, he’s 57th in catches. That’s a lot of incomplete passes, which means that Stafford has had to put more of his focus on Colby Parkinson lately. Parkinson has 61 targets since Week 6, which is not as many as Adams, but his seven targets against the Bears was the second time in the last four games that he had more targets than Adams.
We’ve also seen Stafford target Parkinson more in the red zone than Adams recently.
Parkinson has scored 5 touchdowns in the last six games. Adams hasn’t scored a touchdown since Week 13’s loss to the Panthers, a total of four games without a touchdown (since Adams missed some time with injury).
In fact, Adams has seen his production ramping down for much longer than since Week 13.
Outside of the 4-yard line since Week 5:
34 catches on 68 targets (50% catch rate), 501 yards, 2 TD
A 50% catch rate for 95% of the field is not normal and it’s not good when that player gets targeted 8 times per game. That’s a lot of attention for a player if he’s only making one great play per game.
Since Week 5, Adams ranks 57th in the league in yards outside of the 4-yard line. Some players with more yards in this category include Mack Hollins, Troy Franklin, Rashid Shaheed, Deebo Samuel, Jahmyr Gibbs, Orande Gadsden, Cade Otton, Rashee Rice, Harold Fannin, Jakobi Meyers, Christian Watson, Dalton Schultz, etc. You get the idea. There are 56 players with more yards outside of the 4-yard line since Week 5.
Don’t take offense to empirical data. You can still love and root for Davante Adams!
But don’t forget that your first love is the L.A. Rams, not any single player on the Rams. And what matters on Sunday is beating the Seahawks, not feeding Davante.
This is not an opinion being shared, this is merely a fact that Davante Adams is unsurprisingly (because he’s 33) struggling more than Davante Adams ever has before in his career. And knowing that, what the Rams need to consider is if Adams must be used more as a DECOY than an actual target.
Parkinson has been far more reliable as a weapon over the last 2 months.
Terrance Ferguson has caught two touchdowns in his last three games and might end up being a harder player to cover in the red zone than Adams.
Jordan Whittington had just as many catches (2) and more yards (35) than Adams in last week’s win over the Chicago Bears. He’s just not “Davante Adams” so his impact isn’t given as much attention as the future Hall of Famer.
And if you love Davante Adams on the Rams, that’s great. You should! The Rams are 13-3 when Adams plays this season compared to 1-2 when he doesn’t.
But this is not about what Adams did from Week 1 to the OT catch against the Bears last Sunday. This is about “What have you done for me lately?” and “What will you do for me today?”
And Adams’s production has fallen off of a steep cliff since Week 11, whether that coincides with injuries or not doesn’t matter, averaging only 50% catches and 6.1 yards per target in his last 5 games of the regular season. Only a 36% catch rate and 5.1 yards per target in two playoff games.
For those reasons, Adams will need to show up earlier against Seattle than he has in the last few games and prove he’s still Stafford’s second-best receiving weapon on the field. And if not, Stafford will need to turn elsewhere and prove that now somebody else is.
