Davante Adams Camp Update — August 16: Iron Sharpens Iron While the Touchdown Question Waits
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 17
A quiet week for Adams, and at thirty-three that is the good version. The June claim that his fourteen touchdowns were rented has met no new evidence either way, and the daily battles with Trent McDuffie are the story of his August.
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Davante Adams says he cannot get a better daily look than covering star cornerback Trent McDuffie in practice, calling it "the epitome of iron sharpens iron." That was back on August 3, per John Newman of SB Nation via Yahoo, and it is about as loud as Adams's week got. He sat Saturday's preseason win at Kansas City along with every other Rams starter, per Stu Jackson of therams.com. Quiet week, and for a 33-year-old receiver in his thirteenth camp, quiet is the good version.
So here is the June read again, which will be new to most of you. Adams scored 14 touchdowns last season, the most touchdown-dependent profile of any receiver we covered, and our claim was that those touchdowns were rented, not owned. 14 scores on just 60 catches is a rate that does not repeat, and underneath it sat a thin yardage line, 789 yards, with real stretches of near-invisible weeks. But we also said the doubt was already baked into what everyone expects from him, so the regression story, while real, was not by itself a reason to run. The football bet for 2026 is simple: Matthew Stafford keeps him relevant, and the scoring rate decides whether he is a weekly factor or a name.
The small evidence from camp is fine. At the final open practice back on August 6, Adams drew a long pass attempt down the left sideline against Emmanuel Forbes Jr., per Stu Jackson and Zach Edwards of therams.com. And the Stafford bond is clearly real; Adams told the story of Stafford turning to him after the conference championship loss to Seattle and saying, "I'm sorry man, I wanted that for you so bad." The connection that fed those 14 scores is intact.
Does the June read hold? UNCHANGED — no targets have been thrown in anger yet, so the rented-touchdowns question sits exactly where we left it.
Next week, watch whether the starters play at all before Melbourne, and watch how the target tree shakes out if Puka Nacua's core-muscle issue lingers, because that is the one path to Adams's volume rising. We'll check next Sunday.
_Data via nflverse._
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