Davante Adams Camp Update — August 31: No Preseason Snaps With Stafford

Davante Adams's preseason ended without a rep beside his quarterback. He was rested for Thursday's finale along with all the Rams' regular starters, per Adam Wells at Bleacher Report — and Matthew Stafford was rested with him, so the first live rep of that pairing in front of a crowd that counts comes in Melbourne on September tenth. The evidence base for the pairing is what it was a week ago: the August twentieth joint practice against the Saints, deep ball included.

The week's most useful development for Adams happened at a different locker. Puka Nacua returned to practice on Sunday, per Myles Simmons at Pro Football Talk, and is described by Brock Vierra at Rams Wire as on track for the opener. Last week's episode made that a condition — if Nacua's timeline held, the target tree around Adams would open the season at full strength. It held — with the honest asterisk that no report says whether Sunday's session was full or limited.

Cut day itself was quiet for him. Adams is one of seven receivers on the initial 53, per Mykell Mathieu at The Sporting Tribune, in a room that reacquired Tutu Atwell from Miami on Thursday, per the Associated Press, and waived Brennan Presley, Tyler Scott and Tru Edwards, per Blaine Grisak at Sports Illustrated.

Both of the prior episode's watch items are now answered: the starters did not play the finale, and Nacua is back on the field. Back in June we called Adams's 14 touchdowns on 60 catches in 2025, by our numbers, rented rather than owned — the bet being that Stafford keeps him relevant while the scoring rate decides the rest. August gave the chemistry half real evidence and the scoring half none, and that is where it closes: only real games can test it now. More when the Rams' game week gives us something to chart.

_Data via nflverse._