Davante Adams is playing in his 12th NFL season and is still producing at an impressive level for a 32-year-old. However, he is now on his third team in just two seasons and is finding the end zone for the Los Angeles Rams instead of the New York Jets in 2025.
As he and the Rams get ready to take on San Francisco on Thursday Night Football, let’s revisit when and why he signed with Los Angeles.
Davante Adams’ Journey from the Jets to the Rams
Adams was selected in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers and averaged nearly 700 receiving yards and six touchdowns per season on his rookie deal. Over the next eight seasons, he recorded seven 1,000+ yard campaigns, including four with 1,300+ receiving yards.
He left the Packers after the 2021 season and spent a few seasons with the Raiders before being traded mid-season in 2024 to the Jets, reuniting with Aaron Rodgers. In 11 games with New York, he totaled 114 receptions for 854 yards and seven touchdowns.
Despite this production, the Jets decided to move on as they entered a rebuild under new head coach Aaron Glenn. New York parted ways with Rodgers early in the offseason, and with a looming $38 million cap hit for the upcoming season, Adams followed soon after. Keeping him at that number was never realistic, and no team was willing to take on the contract in a trade.
The Jets eventually released Adams, allowing Los Angeles to sign him to a two-year, $44 million deal, averaging $22 million annually. It is $16 million less than he would have earned under his Jets contract, and so far, the move appears to be paying off for Los Angeles.
Having parted ways with their triple-crown winner, Cooper Kupp, during the offseason, the Rams needed a secondary receiver to pair with Puka Nacua. For Adams, it was also an opportunity to rejuvenate his career after a few slightly rough seasons.
“It’s been exactly what I needed, feeling rejuvenated and really, really enjoying the time with the guys, getting to know them, getting on the same page with Matthew (Stafford), and just kind of gelling with the whole team right now,” Adams said after joining L.A.
“It feels like I’ve been on this team for a couple years now, just based off of how open and receptive the guys have been to me.”
Adams has had a strong start to the season, hauling in 26 receptions for 396 yards and three touchdowns, including a 44-yard TD against the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles. He currently ranks 47th in PFSN’s WR Impact metric and continues to be a reliable target for Stafford alongside Nacua, who ranks No. 2.
Rams Players’ Fantasy Outlooks for Week 7
Here’s what PFSN’s Kyle Soppe wrote about the fantasy outlooks of the notable Rams players for their Week 7 matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars:
Matthew Stafford
If you removed clocks, we’d struggle to tell time, so with Puka Nacua compromised, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Matthew Stafford struggled to make the most of a seemingly perfect matchup.
Los Angeles was unable to stay on the field (under 23 minutes of possession), and that’s always going to kill the upside of a pocket-locked signal caller.
Stafford did what you’d expect and funneled 34.6% of his targets to Davante Adams, but this isn’t peak Adams, and without much depth around him, failure at this level (181 pass yards after throwing for 389 last week against a better defense) was likely to happen.
We will see about the status of Nacua for the London game this week, but I’m not the least bit tempted to call Stafford’s number regardless. Allen is on bye, and so is Lamar Jackson, but you’ve been filling the Jackson void for each of the past two weeks.
The streaming options are weak this week, but Aaron Rodgers (at CIN) or even C.J. Stroud (at SEA) coming off the bye could be sold to me.
Davante Adams
The Davante Adams situation could be one of the more interesting for Week 7, with Nacua’s status (foot) trending in the wrong direction for this London game ahead of the Week 8 bye.
On one hand, it’s easy to look at the target distribution from the first six weeks and pencil in Adams for a vintage performance. This season, the Nacua/Adams duo has combined for 57.6% of Los Angeles’ receptions and 60.1% of receiving yards. Even if you transfer one-third of the potentially vacated production to the WR2 in town, you end up with an overwhelmingly optimistic projection.
In theory, I could see doing that, but that’s not the approach I’m taking. Adams isn’t the player he once was, and the 47.3% catch rate is a clear indication of that. He’s settled into a more vertical role. While part of that could be the desire to leverage his playmaking abilities, I’m not ruling out the possibility that it’s the only way the 32-year-old can win these days, with quick-twitch routes less of an advantage.
If that’s the case, the increase in defensive attention figures to impact his fantasy stock more than an extra target or two.
We are picking nits. Three big-play receivers have cleared 22 PPR points against the Jags (Ja’Marr Chase, Collins, and Smith-Njigba), and Adams could, of course, add his name to that list. The former Packer has seen multiple end-zone targets in three of the past five weeks and is one of two players with a 20+ yard reception in all six weeks (the other: George Pickens).
Adams is a starter in all formats, whether Nacua suits up or not. That’s not the argument. I’m more saying that he doesn’t turn into an All-Pro should the best receiver in the sport be sidelined.
Kyren Williams
This offense is at risk if we assume Nacua sits (17 points against the gutted Ravens last week was proof of that). But we know that Kyren Williams will get his 15+ touches while being heavily featured in scoring situations, and that’s plenty to lock him into lineups.
He’s scored four times over the past four weeks and has had multiple receptions in five straight. The explosive plays may be few and far between, but Williams is picking up at least five yards on 41.1% of his carries this season, up from 36.4% in 2021, and enough to help him have access to an elevated floor.
He’s one of the least likely backs in my top 15 this week to give us a top-3 week, but the role in the red zone and my confidence in Matthew Stafford efficiently moving this offense give him a better chance to finish with a top-20 week than most in this tier.
