TSH Spotlight: Davante Adams
By Allison Koehler, freelance writer for The Sideline Hustle
[interview by Drew Lieberman, creator of The Sideline Hustle]
In a deep 2014 wide receiver draft class that included Mike Evans, Odell Beckham, Jr., Brandin Cooks, and Kelvin Benjamin, Davante Adams was selected 53rd overall by the Green Bay Packers.
Astonishingly, Adams was the 8th receiver drafted. Given Adams’ body of work to date, he was an absolute steal in the second round.
Out of that draft class, only Evans and Beckham have more touchdowns; only Evans, Beckham, and Cooks have more yards; and only Evans and Beckham more catches.
On a team that relied heavily on the passing game, Adams was just the player the Packers needed. Upon arrival in Green Bay, Adams shared the spotlight with Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb.
The Packers organization knew they had something special, and they showed confidence in his talents when they released Nelson and Cobb in the 2018 and 2019 offseason.
Following their departures, the receiver earned his stripes — jumping from third to first on the WR depth chart. A two-time Pro Bowler, Adams has been a touchdown machine with 40 scores in his six-year career. Having enjoyed two seasons in the top five of receiving yards per game, he’s on pace to surpass the 5,000 career yards receiving mark in 2019.
Adams is one of the most dangerous receivers in the league. He’s a smooth route runner who has an uncanny ability to track the football and make high-point sideline catches while contested by the defender. He’s smart, competitive and strong and knows how to use his body in leverage for the ball, and to set up his route cuts. His ball adjustment skills and hands are one of the NFL’s best.
The Sideline Hustle sat down to catch up with the receiver on Episode #002 of Bean Talk. You can also watch WR Film Room Episode #003 here.
TSH: Talk to people a little bit about what you did this offseason to try and take your game to the next level.
Davante: I mean, the biggest thing for me is, I’ve never been a 4.3 guy, probably never will be as far as the real forty times ago. I try to do anything to improve my speed. I feel like I’ve got a rare skill set to be able to move from side to side and use my quickness as an advantage in my game. Anything I can do to help my route run, I have been trying to do that over the years. So, this year, I’m doing a lot more track workouts, so I can blow the top off of some of these defenses. Another thing I did was Muscular Systematic Engineering, which is another thing to kind of fine-tune my body to where I can train more, which is what we talked about a few weeks back. It was ultimately to be able to go out and train my craft in my route running even more.
TSH: Take me back to high school, college, then now. How has your offseason training kind of change over that time?
Davante: At the beginning, I really had the wrong idea. I was thinking that it was all about being swole and being the big dude. So, my body changed a lot. I felt like I’m able to move and sustain. Over time, my stamina is a lot better than what it was. I’m bulked up, and I had that big arms and all that stuff. You still see the biceps. I just did everything I could to really try to fine-tune and make sure I was focused on what actually I needed to be focused on. Because I was too worried about how stuff looked, rather than the actual performance of it. So now that I’m getting older and learning tricks of the trade, and seeing, you know, looking at the Larry Fitzs and a lot of guys like that, and people that sustain longevity in this thing. I’m talking to Jerry Rice and different things like that. Learning. Jerry was never known as the guy that was biggest dude out; you got the Andre Johnson guys out there who can do that because that’s really their natural size. But that’s not my natural size, and I really wasn’t feeling this comfortable like that.
TSH: No doubt, I think that’s something all young receivers, it’s going to be super valuable in high school, college it is that kind of stigma. Like I just got to get big, I got to put on the most weight, I got to pass my lift test, all that kind of stuff. But that’s not how you play this game 15–20 years.
Davante: It’s not about the Combine no more. Once you do the Combine, the forties [40-yard dash] are done, and the bench press maxing out, all that stuff is done. You know, it looks cool to be able to say I can bench 225 [pounds] 25 times, but if you can’t get off press, then none of that matters.
TSH: I feel that, too. I just went through that with the kid I told you a lot about, Juwann Winfree, who just got drafted for the Broncos. And it was so relieving for both of us once he was done with the Combine and Pro Day stuff.
Davante: They got to test something. They got to find how fast guys are some way, you can’t really blame them, but you also know at one point that all that stuff goes out the window and it’s about what works best for you to make sure that my game is about quickness and getting off the spot. The bench press is not really going to help that, so I’m not putting work in the weight room because I definitely am. Just the main focus kind of shifts into what you really need to do. And like I said, for me to be able to move lateral, and defeat press, and go out there and beat the Patrick Petersons of the world.
TSH: I’m going to get to the press coverage in a second because we probably had four or 500 questions from the fans, and two-thirds of them were about press releases because everyone loves your press release game. So I will get to that in a second, but something I want to talk about that I think is unique about you, similar to our guest last week, Mohamed Sanu, who has kind of been spearheaded on this whole Bean Talk, is that you move around the field a lot and you go from outside receiver. Just talk to me like what that’s like, how does your mindset change going from an outside receiver to a slot receiver? How does your plan change, if any? And just talk about that adjustment throughout the game.
Davante: Well, I feel like I’ve been put in a situation where earlier in my career, most of what I was doing was outside. I feel like it kind of limited me. Over the past few years, I’ve been moved around a little bit more. I think it’s better for a guy to start out outside, and you know it’s an easier transition at the sideline right there, and you know you’ve got an inside receiver on the inside where you can’t hide from the jump. Being able to work in that kind of that phone booth mentality. So to be able to take all those moves in that whole, use that repertoire and take that inside with all of this space, I feel like, well I know just based on my conversations with different DBs, guys that I respect a lot in the league, them telling me how much of a bind it puts them in to be stretched out. Now you’ve got all of that room; you can go anywhere. The biggest thing was I love about being able to move and play number three, number two, and number one because now I can use those different moves and kind of alter them. And you know, you’ve even made highlights of what I’ve done when I’ve been at that number three spot. So, it’s a little bit more fun.
TSH: And that’s what I want to talk about next, that Wide Receiver Film Room episode, the long breakdown I did on your game versus the 49ers that was like you were kind of in a lull period during that game playing the second and third quarters and then it seemed like once that the coach has put you in number three. They found that mismatch you had like seven catches in the last three minutes of the game. Once they found that looked like y’all were hitting on.
Davante: Like I said, it’s a blessing creating a skill set like in that phone booth, and then you get an inside, and then you can run across the field. You can run deep routes. You can still do all the same things. But I feel like it puts the DB and more of a bind. You got to react more rather than just using his skill set. He can’t guess as much, because you can go anywhere.
TSH: And so right after that episode, which I’m sure was just coincidence, right after that episode you put out a tweet saying, “Expanding my release package”.
Talk to me without giving away too much. Talk to me a little bit about what that entails. I know you work with a guy in the offseason, Keith Williams, and I have a lot of respect for and have gotten to know pretty well. Just talk about kind of what that process was like expanding your release package that a lot of people already feel like it’s one of the best in the league?
Davante: Not everybody has the right idea of exactly what I meant, but obviously, I got the footwork at the line of scrimmage. But releases, it’s just more than what happens right as you release. The release continues really for about five yards. So, if I come off the line, I can give you a little shake and commit to the fade. Then at five yards, I can give you another little pop-pop. That’s the type of thing that’ll throw somebody off because it really don’t matter because wideout play is all about the presentation. So, I can tell a DB all my secrets at the line of scrimmage at the beginning of the game. And depending on what I do, depending on how I make it look, he has to respect it. Because if I really make you look like I want to run a fade, you have to respect it. You can’t just say no, he said that he’s going to do this, so he’s not going to do it. So, if I get on my horse, I got to convince myself that I’m running that fade before I convince a DB. Because if I think it, and then shut it down, he really thinks I’m on my horse and getting out of there. The release pattern is really all throughout the first five yards of the route. So, I can shake you here, release outside, and then give you another little something like now you thinking that that was a slant, and that’s where the separation comes.
TSH: Pairing all those releases together and making certain packages look the same for different routes. Absolutely, that’s truly what the art of receiver play is.
Davante: And another thing to toot your horn a little bit after watching the 49er breakdown, you brought up the steal and releases, and that’s the thing that I really didn’t even know other people were even paying attention to because I do practice all the time. When it may be a run the opposite way, and I know I’m not getting involved, but just to feel them out because you don’t get all the opportunities. You may not get that route later on, so it’s kind of a practice. It’s like you see Steve Nash at the line kind of doing this before he shoots a free throw. I’ll just look at it that way because you may not have gotten a rep against that guy before.
Like last year I played Xavien Howard, and that was my first time playing against him. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. So that’s the guy where if I play Richard Sherman, I’ve played him a few times where I know how he’s going to react to certain things a little bit better just based off an experience. But playing against a guy like Xavien, I got to feel him out and see how he reacts to stuff. So maybe I want to use a certain release later. So, I’ll counter it by doing a little BS or for lack of better words, release to see how he kind of bite the cheese on it.
TSH: For anyone who doesn’t know what Tae is referring to, the concept of stealing and release is anytime you get press coverage in a run play where the pressure is not really on you, it’s when you want to steal and release instead of just running the guy off kind of lazily and taking that play off, like really take your time to execute a plan and either set something up down the road or just judge how he reacts, so you gain information and that way you can accumulate 10–15 extra reps throughout a game. So that when your number is called against press coverage in the fourth quarter, now you have all those added reps.
Davante: Yeah, 100%, that’s the biggest way. I feel like that’s like getting a practice shot in.
TSH: Coach Dubb [WR coach, Keith Williams] left a comment on the post where people are asking questions. This is something that you introduced to me; he said his question was, “Explain how press releases are similar to wiping your own ass?”
Davante: I was just about to bring this up anyway. I’m glad that he said something. So, the easiest way to, and I hope everybody listening to this, I wish there was more people tapped in, the wideouts out there. You’ve got to think about it. Date back to when you became a grown man or an older adolescent kid, the last 500 times you wiped your ass, you didn’t get up, not one time, saying, “Damn, I didn’t wipe my ass good enough right there.” So that’s how you got to treat every single release. Come off the line; you can’t, you got to go ball, you can’t come off the line and just pitter-patt. You work in all these times and practice with every wideout coach you ever had, and I know everybody’s doing it. Everybody’s working on releases now. And it just kills me when I see a guy have a go ball and he got the perfect, it’s one high man, safety’s tilted the other way, and now this is his way to wipe his ass. Come off and just halfway wipe his ass and then flush the toilet. You’ve got to make sure you’re coming off, and you’re wiping your ass good because you would do the same thing. You’ll never get off the toilet, a thousand times out of a thousand times, you gonna make sure your ass is wiped good. So that’s how I look at my releases, especially on a go ball, because that’s the home run right there.
TSH: It’s one of the best metaphors I’ve heard, and I think it really resonates with the kid. They laugh at it at; first, it’s on point. It’s something I’ve been kind of, on that note I’ve been relaying to my receiver’s as of lately, just thinking about its intent, the intention at the line of scrimmage. It’s like every step; every plan has a purpose. So think about what is that plan? Do I have to get him to jump inside? But then you better do that before you release. It is my plan to stretch him outside and test his reaction, whatever the intent of that release is. Slow yourself down and take a deep breath, figure out what the purpose is, then go execute. Stop being in such a rush and acting like the clock is ticking, because you have a little more time than you think.
Davante: Exactly. I tell the wideouts that we got some of the young guys, right. They get out there and they do some of the most beautiful releases in the world. And in team periods or preseason game or whatever it is, and then they rush it and I’m like, “Why are you rushing that?” Because you saw when we were doing one-on-ones, you saw what the effect of what it does when you do, you widen tap, or what you do whatever it is. You do a threat and release, and you whooped him, but now you’re getting in the heated zone because you’re fast. I mean we get everybody if you got a 4.3 just… why not mess that 4.3 up with being a technician because that actually takes talent.
TSH: Last kind of thing on press releases or the plan, a little bit of like mindset stuff, and then I’ll let you go and get back and golf. I don’t know if you saw the clip I just sent you. I just put out this post. Kind of your highlights mashed up with an interview I had with Darius Slay, who obviously is a DB that we both have a lot of respect for. I think he’s one of the better guys in the game. I asked him, I said, “Who’s the best receiver you have ever gone up against?” And he said it was you. He just said you have releases at the line of scrimmage that were really tough to decipher. I’m going to just talk about what overall do you feel like it is about you that makes you such a difficult cover? You know, maybe something that kids can kind of emulate from your game that makes you so hard to cover.
Davante: The one thing that I do, and I think that a lot of people don’t understand, is that with what I do at the line of scrimmage is, it’s not choreography. It’s based on, I have an initial plan, and this is another, Coach Dubb metaphor, I guess you could say. It’s kind of like a Terminator mask; if the guy’s right upon you, you got to have a plan. You drop down, it’s kind of like you hit a button, and these five releases in your head drop down. If he’s three yards off it’s a soft press, you got to drop down, and then those scroll down. If he spots, you got to have that same mentality. So, I just always have a plan initially and based off what the defense gives me, I try to react off that. So, you will notice a lot of times I may not get the perfect release, I may not whoop him exactly how I want to at the line, but my hands are always ready, so if he does get a jump on whatever it is, my hands are ready, and my hands are violent, so I’m still really sudden.
The other big thing that I think that guys should do is the change of pace. People don’t truly understand and value the change of pace coming off the line of scrimmage. I may burst off, and just slow it down, and then now the DB is thinking they waited for their money move. I did another release thing with Charles Woodson on ESPN, and I talked about him and DBs waiting for their money move. So, as soon as I come off a burst, and then I slow, then I come below them. You obviously don’t want to expose your chest because that’s another reason why a lot of coaches they coach against that is because people show they chest, and they slow down. But you keep that same path where you just change your pace for the next thing. So, the next flash that they see, they go on with it, but rather than you just taking with some, sometimes you may do that, but more often than not, they see that, and then they waiting for the next thing. I’m going to throw it there, and I’m going to stick and then take it back inside. Now they jumping for that because they were waiting when they were lulled to sleep, they waited for the next move. But rather than just doing the obvious counter it with a jab or sometimes you do take it just based on what they give you.
TSH: And I think that was really well said. You said a couple of things there that made me smile, and it’s exactly what I tell my guys, but the thing is you got the young wideouts got to realize it’s like you know where he’s going he doesn’t. You’re always in control. There’s never a moment as a receiver where you’re not in control, so take advantage of that and using change of space, using attack in different angles to get them off balance. Those are the things that can get you open. The reason the what, the ways you lose control is by rushing it and not executing your plan fully.
Davante: 100% you got to execute. I mean the plan is that you train it all and you don’t, we don’t train in just straight lines, so get why people just take off and go. Sometimes if they’ve got one open the gate, he fast, you have take that, but how do you get a quality corner that’s just going to open up the gates. You just running at him straight, and he try to run around them. One, that’s going to be a bad release, and it’s going to be wasted release. And two, quarterbacks probably not going to throw you the ball because more often than not you’re not going to save that red line for him unless you got an Aaron Rodgers type guy, which I tried to even help him out by not doing that. You don’t want to have the quarterback, because it’s just more than just you out there. He got options to throw it too, and if you stand up against the sidelines, just run this sprint next to a guy at all times. You putting more pressure on him.
TSH: I’m going to get into a little bit of mindset stuff. @mconrad34 and @nikolaipreston, they both asked me, What’s your mindset at the line of scrimmage? When you’re sizing up the DB, what are some the cues that you look for? That tell you to kind of break off your release and use over the other.
Davante: Well, the biggest thing is knowing before you even line up with him. Just based off of film. I’m a big film guy. I watch countless hours of film of my opponent. I like to watch; I’m already watching film on Xavier Rhodes and Darius Slay right now. I’ve played them for, obviously, for a while. I’ve played them before, so it’s a big thing. I try to just know. You got to know your personnel. So, going into it there’s just really no surprises. Obviously, people change up their game a little bit, but just knowing the most that you can out the gate, I feel like it gives you an advantage. So, I try to just learn them and then come off the line. And like I said, react. The biggest thing is always to be able to stick your feet in the ground. People talk about not getting parallel, but it’s a great thing to work. You can’t always do it, but you know, like Jordy Nelson. He’s a guy that was often open, but that’s not something that was a part of his skill set. So, he knew different ways to manipulate DBs to just outsmart and do different things. He wouldn’t try to do necessarily the same things I would do and vice versa.
TSH: Well said. Mo Sanu gave us some interesting, listen to this, any pregame superstitions, or pregame routines that you had to stick to every single week?
Davante: I got nothing really crazy. I just eat the exact same thing before every game.
TSH: And what do you eat? He said he eats peanut butter and jelly before every game.
Davante: I’ll do PB&J at half time sometime, but I make a salmon salad. I started doing it in 2016, and I had a few touchdowns that year, so I’m just saying we going to keep that going. It’s a little bit just a regular salad, real salmon, and with ranch and cheddar cheese. And that’s my go-to right there.
TSH: I like that. That’s very interesting. Last one, who’s the hardest cornerback you’ve ever matched up against?
Davante: It’s been different guys at different points. I say my rookie year; it was Darrell Revis. He was the guy when we played the Pats, but over the years, consistently it’s probably been Pat P. [Peterson]. I got a lot of respect for Slay and Xavier Rhodes. And you know what, Xavien Howard this past year, I think he’s one of the better cornerbacks in the league.
TSH: Any like football idols you had growing up, your favorite receiver growing up, or anyone you really like to watch now?
Davante: Oh yeah, I mean as far as work ethic and just respect for what he’s done. Obviously, Jerry is bar none. My favorite wideout of all times is Randy Moss. He the freak. He’s always been that guy I’ve idolized. I never could run like him, but I felt like we had a similar skill set. Catch the ball well with our hands. We both can run, and he took his route serious too. People don’t really give him credit as much for his route is because how fast he was. Even breaking dudes off, so I got a chance to meet him a few years back. Met with Jerry a few times, but I did a panel with him at the Super Bowl, so that was pretty dope. But yeah, those are probably my top two.
