Davante Adams — Week 1: Three Deep Balls, None Caught
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Friday, Sep 11
Adams was thrown to six times Thursday and caught three, for thirteen, three and ten yards. The other three were deep — twenty, seventeen and nineteen yards in the air — and all three fell incomplete, two of them on third down. Six targets for twenty-six yards and minus one point seven expected points, second on the Rams in targets behind Puka Nacua's nine, in a 27–7 loss in Melbourne.
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Davante Adams's night Thursday split cleanly into two kinds of throws. The short ones he caught: 13 yards on first and 15 from the San Francisco 24 in the third quarter, which put the Rams at the 11 on the drive that died at the one; three yards on first down, the Rams' first snap of the fourth; 10 yards on second and six with nine oh eight left. The deep ones he did not: third and six from the Los Angeles 40 in the first quarter, 20 yards in the air down the right side, incomplete, punt; third and 13 from the 48 with two 59 left in the half, 17 yards in the air down the left side, incomplete, punt; second and 10 from the 46 with eight 39 left in the fourth, 19 in the air down the right, incomplete.
Six targets, three catches, 26 yards, no touchdowns. The six throws his way were worth −1.7 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position, and two third-down incompletions that ended drives add up to more than the whole of it; the three catches pulled it back. His longest catch was 13 yards, and none of his three catches came on third down.
He was the Rams' second option by volume: nine targets to Puka Nacua, six to Adams, three to Kyren Williams, and the other 10 across four tight ends, Ronnie Rivers, two other receivers, and one throw with no intended receiver. Matthew Stafford put 232 air yards on 25 throws, and Adams's three deep targets were part of that, and part of why 15 completions was the number.
Back in June the preview's read on Adams was that a WR8 season had been built on touchdown rate rather than on a target share or an air-yards role, and that finishes like that carry less into the next year than volume does. Thursday, the volume half looked fine — six targets, second on the team — and the touchdown half did not come. What the night added that the preview did not have is a shape: three deep targets went his way and none connected. One game, against a defense that had one interception and no sacks all night; not a verdict on the connection. Los Angeles is home to the Giants on Monday the 20-first. The number to watch is the deep ones.
_Data via nflverse._
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