The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Pack WR a perfect target for Rodgers

Adams heads home to Cali, where Sherman will take aim at him too.

- By Keith Jenkins

GREEN BAY, WIS. — Davante Adams obsesses about being great.

The Green Bay Packers wide receiver wasn’t a five-star recruit. He wasn’t the biggest, fastest or most athletic. He wasn’t even a football player until late in his high school career.

But the two-time Pro Bowl player has worked himself into being Aaron Rodgers’ top option and is one win away from playing in his first Super Bowl. Adams and the Packers will face the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday’s NFC championsh­ip game, just a few miles from his native Palo Alto, California.

“I’m trying not to (freak out),” Adams said Wednesday. “But, I mean, we’re all excited in here. This is a great opportunit­y. We understand what’s in front of us.”

Adams, who caught two touchdowns and had a franchise playoff-record 160 yards in a win over the Seattle Seahawks last Sunday in the NFC divisional round, now must face one of the top defenses in the NFL and one of the league’s

best cornerback­s.

“Well, I mean, it doesn’t change, really,” Adams said of facing Richard Sherman. “He’s definitely a great player, and people have said a lot about whether he’s fell off or what not and I don’t see that. I see that he’s still the same guy, still making plays.”

Sherman’s 35 intercepti­ons since entering the league in 2011 are the most among active players in that span. The 31-year-old is looking to make his third Super Bowl appearance after being one of the key parts to the Seahawks’ back-to-back Super Bowl appearance­s in the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Though Sherman’s resume is longer than Adams’, the respect between the two is mutual.

“He’s very good at beating man coverage,” Sherman said. “When guys that are hard to cover because of their quickness, their feet, their size and their hands, it’s tough in the zone. They’ve got a good quarterbac­k who gets the ball in the right spot. Davante’s definitely their best guy beating man to man.”

What makes Adams special is his release off the line of scrimmage. It’s a skill he acquired during his years as a basketball player and one that he works tirelessly to master.

“I’d say obsession is a good word for it,” he said. “... I don’t know at which point exactly it turned into that, but once I started realizing I could lose people at the line of scrimmage and essentiall­y run a route on air, I figured that was the way to go.”

Since Green Bay drafted Adams in the second round in 2014 out of Fresno State, the 6-foot-1 215-pounder has grown from being Rodgers’ third or fourth option, behind the likes of Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb, to one of the most productive pass catchers in the league. Adams was on pace for his second straight 1,000-yard season before a turf toe injury in Week 4 against the Eagles sidelined him for four weeks. He finished with 997 yards.

Rodgers said what has changed most about Adams in their six seasons together is Adams’ ability to use his mind to his advantage.

“Because he’s made certain plays throughout the year where him and I have had conversati­ons either on the sidelines or in the locker room after the game and he will bring up certain plays from previous games or previous years,” Rodgers said.

Adams said that recall has come with time. He remembered a game last season against the Cardinals when the two linked up for a 13-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone after Rodgers gave Adams a simple point.

“When you get a certain amount of reps under your belt, I think that that’s what puts you in position where now you can kind of read each other’s body language,“he said.

The Packers will need more than body language to defeat a 49ers team that dominated them 37-8 in Week 12. The lopsided loss was Green Bay’s worst of the season.

“You have to understand what they’re going to try to do to us, and obviously taking away 17 has got to be right near the top of the list because he’s so talented,” Rodgers said.

Adams already has 18 tickets to Sunday’s game to accommodat­e family and friends. But he said there’s no pressure.

“The pressure is really on them,” Adams said of the 49ers. “They went out there and they dominated us last game and we did not take care of business the way we should have. It’s only up from here as far as how we go about it.”

 ??  ?? Green Bay’s Davante Adams says the pressure is on the 49ers, since they won the last meeting.
Green Bay’s Davante Adams says the pressure is on the 49ers, since they won the last meeting.
 ?? ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? The Packers’ Davante Adams set a Green Bay franchise playoff record with 160 yards last weekend in the home win against the Seahawks.
ASSOCIATED PRESS The Packers’ Davante Adams set a Green Bay franchise playoff record with 160 yards last weekend in the home win against the Seahawks.

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