The Rams may have another receiver problem on their hands after Davante Adams went down late in Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals with a non-contact injury to his left leg.
Adams was running into the end zone on a pass route when he pulled up, grabbed at his left knee and hobbled off for attention. The Rams had only one offensive snap left after that - a go-ahead touchdown that didn’t stick.
Sean McVay did not address Adams’s apparent injury when he spoke after the game.
It’s a troubling development for a team already thin at the position. Last season, Adams missed the final three regular-season games with a hamstring injury, though he still finished as the NFL leader in touchdown catches.
Through the season so far, Adams has 30 receptions for 480 yards and four touchdowns. Most of that damage came in two games: Week 2 against the Giants, when he piled up 195 yards, and Week 3 at Denver, where he went for 137. In the other four games combined, he has just 148 receiving yards.
The Rams have leaned on Puka Nacua as their top pass-catching option, and Sunday offered another reminder of that. Nacua, who sat out the two games in which Adams was at his best because of a hip/groin/pre-hernia issue, caught six passes for 80 yards. Three of those grabs went for 62 yards on the Rams’ final drive.
If Adams has to miss time, the options behind him are thin: Konata Mumpfield, Jordan Whittington, Tutu Atwell, C.J. Daniels and Alex Bachman are the other receivers on hand.
That leaves the Rams with a looming decision, with the trade deadline 22 days away. The question now is whether they’re willing to “eff them picks” to bring in receiver help. It also puts fresh scrutiny on the choice to use their bonus first-round pick from last year’s Falcons trade on a quarterback rather than a receiver, especially with the lack of depth behind Nacua and Adams now looking so obvious.
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Arizona, though, has given no public indication that it is eager to move him, which is why any serious conversation would need to be handled carefully. The Cardinals have every reason to treat Sweat as more than a simple deadline asset, and that uncertainty is what keeps the situation from feeling like a quick fix for Dallas. For now, it is a familiar deadline tug-of-war: a team looking for immediate help, and another weighing whether a valuable edge defender is truly available at all. [Read more 🡒]