LOS ANGELES — When Davante Adams first signed with the Rams, his expectation was that Puka Nacua would be the first man up in receiver drills. Given Nacua’s success with the Rams the past two seasons and Adams being the new guy, it seemed like the natural outcome.
But before training camp, Nacua asked Adams to lead the drills because, during OTAs, Nacua found that when he was at the front of the line, he wasn’t putting enough focus into his own reps.
“I’m trying to sprint as fast as I can so I can turn around and watch him. So, I was like, ‘Hey, I think it’ll make my job a little bit easier if you just go first,’” Nacua said last week on the first day of camp. “Today I was right there in the back and I’m just standing like this because I’m going to watch the tape again, but I’m like, there’s nothing better than seeing him with my own two eyes.”
Nacua is not alone in that regard. Since his arrival in Woodland Hills this spring, Adams has been treated like a professor by the young collection of receivers.
It’s been a common sight for the 32-year-old Adams to be surrounded by his position group at Loyola Marymount University, using his arms to illustrate whatever point it is he’s trying to make while the second-team offense is on the field.
Adams isn’t trying to hold court, but the court always seems to find him. Particularly Nacua, who in his first two seasons in the league began to experience the type of coverages that the three-time All-Pro Adams has navigated across many of his 11 NFL seasons.
“I’m not a walking wise man where I’m just trying to drop little trinkets on him all day, but it’s more whenever it comes up,” Adams said. “Me having seen a lot of doubles and different brackets and different things, I’ve had to look at coverages differently than other people and kind of take a deeper dive. That part is actually like some of the most enjoyable parts of this thing for me, the cerebral game.”
Reading coverages has been a popular topic among Adams and his teammates, even if they aren’t the type to typically draw doubles or force safeties to shade over to their side of the field.
Adams said the best questions he’s gotten from his fellow receivers have been about reading coverages and how that impacts choice routes.
“In their mind, they just think, it’s like a superhero doing it,” Adams said. “I just try to simplify and tell them that a lot of times I just know what they’re running. If you know what they’re running and what their job is, you can use that against them to buy yourself more room, more time, more space and that equals more wins.”
Offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur knows that information gets across differently coming from a teammate of Adams’ repute compared to coming from a coach.
When LaFleur first introduces a player to choice routes, he tries to keep it simple. Find the cornerback who is covering you and try to beat him one-on-one. If the man disappears, it’s probably a zone, so try to drop into a soft spot. Then they go to the practice field and rep it a few times before debriefing.
“When you get a guy like ‘Tae’ who’s been doing this for a long time, he’ll take it a step further. I kind of get scared when he’s saying, ‘See what’s in there and if they’re getting cleared out,’ and stuff like that,” LaFleur said. “But that is the next level that I think players, particularly, guys like ‘Tae’ can pass that knowledge on to a lot of these receivers … that sometimes, I don’t want to say we’re scared as coaches to do that, but again you don’t want to overwhelm them, you want to do it with practice and then you kind of see who has that feel and who doesn’t.”
Notes
Cornerback Emmanuel Forbes (hamstring) and safety Kam Curl (ankle) were not present during the Rams’ walkthrough on Wednesday.