Davante Adams is widely known as one of the league's premier route runners, so he doesn't exactly have a footwork issue.
That doesn't mean he's going to stop honing his craft. Adams approached his most recent offseason with a focus on general improvement in a variety of areas and "making the film look better." Well, he sure made it look good on one early play Monday night.
Adams ran a hitch route, quickly turning and catching a short pass from Aaron Rodgers before turning upfield, picking up four more yards and breaking Amani Oruwariye's ankles.
The devastating cut was inspired by a rather famous athlete who captivated the football world a night earlier: Lamar Jackson.
"I think I had led the league or was second in the league in YAC (yards after catch) last year, so that was something I wanted to continue to improve upon," Adams said of his catch and juke that sent Oruwariye to the Lambeau Field turf and safety Will Harris tripping over him. "... Any time I feel like there's a vacancy, I feel like you have a better opportunity to do that because you can kind of see the field a little bit better.
"That, and I watched probably 25 minutes' worth of Lamar Jackson highlights before the game. That's not a joke, either. I'm being dead serious. I really did at the house, had a little bit of time. I was watching the game, and I was like 'if he can do that, I should be able to do half of what he's doing out there as far as making people miss.' So I've had that in my mind a little bit and used that as motivation."
Adams pulled quite a Jackson impression with the move made on his first of eight receptions, picking up 18 of his 121 total yards with the catch, juke and run to the sideline on Monday night. Twenty-four hours earlier, Jackson was making multiple Chiefs defenders miss with similar one-cut bursts to open space, finishing with 346 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns.
Adams is the type of receiver who wins off the line with his impeccable footwork, and he's steadily become a top option for catch-and-run opportunities, finishing second to only Travis Kelce among receivers and tight ends in YAC last season. But the mention of studying Jackson led one media member to ask if Adams picked up anything he might use to beat a defender at the snap in the future. Adams, a 2020 All-Pro, thinks he has that part down.
"It don't really work as much at the line because he's a big one-cut guy. He sticks that foot in the ground and he's decisive the way he does it," Adams explained. "Off the line, you can go one-cut sometimes, but for the most part it's more methodical with that. I'll stay in my book for that, and with the ball in my hand I'll get in his book."
Adams' stat line wasn't as gaudy as Jackson's, but it didn't matter Monday. His Packers were able to rediscover their offensive rhythm that propelled them to the NFC Championship Game in each of the last two seasons, but had escaped them in Week 1.
Instead of spending another week attempting to explain how the Packers hoped to get things back on track, the film will speak for itself -- just as Adams likes it.
