Why Not Montravius Adams?
The 2017 third-round pick has been much improved in camp. Can he parlay that into a strong sophomore season?
By mkelley
One of the great barstool games of the long offseason is trying to figure out who will be the Packers’ breakout player once the season gets underway.
There are always several players who under- or overplay the fans’ and coaches’ expectations in a season on any given team, and as important as the 10 or 15 new faces may be in camp, it’s often the improved performance of returning players that can really launch a team deep into the playoffs. Packers fans needn’t look outside the division for examples. Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen made just 20 catches in his first two seasons, followed by campaigns of 69 and 91 receptions.
Davante Adams took a steadier ascent to become Green Bay’s top receiver, but he’s another good example, adding over 500 yards to his receiving totals between 2015 and 2016.
But with the national obsession with fantasy football, it can be easy for the spotlight to miss major improvements in the trenches. Last year Blake Martinez became a much more reliable three-down inside linebacker, providing some much needed stability that, with Jake Ryan’s recent ACL tear, will lack for continuity.
One candidate to emerge from the weeds this year, however, is Montravius Adams.
Adams suffered a stress-fractured foot around this time last year, severely limiting his playing time. He totaled just two total tackles in his rookie campaign, appearing in only seven games.
But the 306-pound defensive lineman was impressive throughout the Family Night practice Saturday night, generating pass rush on multiple occasions, albeit against the second-team offensive line.
Adams came out of Auburn a year ago as an excellent athlete who needed to show improvement with his hands and block-shedding technique. On Family Night, however, he successfully employed a few moves to beat his man.
Seen below, Adams (No. 90) shows the strength to extend his arms after initial contact, not allowing the blocker to get into his body. Once Adams sees his man is off-balance, he uses a quick, effective swim move to generate a clear path to the quarterback.
Oh hey Montravius Adams. pic.twitter.com/4cAqxG4hpS
— Andy Herman (@SconnieSports) August 5, 2018
This is just one of several standout plays by Adams on Family Night, but it’s worth noting that one practice doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be a Pro Bowler this year. Still, it appears the 23-year-old is healthy and has improved despite his limited snaps last year.
While many fans are still hoping an impact player emerges from the struggling secondary, it’s possible the team’s rising star of 2018 could be Adams on the defensive line, a group already stacked with talent and a good mix of youth and experience.
Kenny Clark emerged as a force last year, and Mike Daniels seems to be perpetually difficult to block. But with veteran free agent Muhammad Wilkerson reuniting with new defensive coordinator Mike Pettine and the solid play of Dean Lowry, the defensive line has a chance to be a real strength this year.
With some concerns at outside linebacker still looming—predominantly those regarding health—it’s unlikely the Packers will have a double-digit sack man in 2018. But it looks like the collective pass rush, both from scheme pressures courtesy of Pettine and from a deep defensive line group, could be pretty good.
And if Adams continues to play like he did Saturday night, it’ll be tough for Pettine’s staff to keep him on the sidelines—and tougher for opposing offenses to keep him out of their backfield.
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Matt Kelley is a staff writer for Cheesehead TV. He can be found on Twitter via @hustleandheart1.
Comments (21)
Spock
August 05, 2018 at 01:09 pm
I've seen numerous reports on M. Adams' "quick first step" and his "impressive swim move". Makes me feel the possibility of him having a good year is more likely than not.
MarkinMadison
August 05, 2018 at 01:47 pm
It will be interesting to see if the depth at DL leads to more 4-down alignments. It's certainly not hard to envision a scenario where this defense has a few injuries and finds itself without four (or even three) capable linebackers.
Turophile
August 06, 2018 at 05:15 am
Biegel and Gilbert are still young enough to give us hope for the OLB pass rush, but if Clay Matthews is gone after this year, the pass rush has to come from somewhere.
A combination of an improvement of existing players, a hot pass rusher drafted high in 2019, and better pass rush from the D line itself, will be relied on to provide enough pressure to allow our young and talented DBs to to their job.
I think that can be achieved, but it is no slam-dunk.
Lare
August 05, 2018 at 03:27 pm
Adams' injury last year set him up pretty well to have a good season this year. In addition to giving him time to get 100% healthy, it allowed him time to gain strength and get acclimated to the NFL. I would not be at all surprised to see him be productive this year and the DL to be dominant.
Bearmeat
August 05, 2018 at 04:37 pm
I'm going to come out and say it: This will be the best DL GB has had since 2010, and before that, since 96. They are going to eat up blockers, keep the ILBs free to flow to the ball, stop the run game AND provide interior pressure.
Clark/Daniels/Wilkerson/Lowry/Adams is a helluva rotation.
TarynsEyes
August 05, 2018 at 05:16 pm
Agree with this 100 percent and more Now ' if ' the LB and Secondary units can play to levels needed while this DL gives us their best...we just may have a team and a defense to do what is needed in January and perhaps Feb.
GBPDAN1
August 05, 2018 at 04:39 pm
Really looking forward to Thursdays preseason game to watch the first and second year players . I think we have some good young players on board.
Nerd
August 05, 2018 at 05:11 pm
Which will have a better breakout, Adams or Biegel?
KnockTheSnotOutOfYou
August 05, 2018 at 08:16 pm
I'm predicting Adam's becomes the most dominant DL the Pack has before the year is out if he stays healthy. Bold prediction yes, but always have believed in Adam's. I think he pushes the veteran DL ahead of him to play better and steadily assumes more and more of their playing time following mid-season. If a DL goes down for a few games they most likely will never regain all their playing time back.
cheesehead1
August 05, 2018 at 11:01 pm
Any positive news on Biegal? Haven’t heard much at all so far. Hope he shows us all in preseason how good he can be.
Thegreatreynoldo
August 05, 2018 at 07:11 pm
Zach Kruse has a nice article on M. Adams on packerswire. Kruse wrote about 6 noteworthy plays:
1. Pressure against McCray.
2. Pressure against Amichia.
3. Pressure/Sack against Day.
4. Pressure against Amichia.
5. Defeated Lucas Patrick for TFL.
6. Pressure against Pankey.
Gilbert beat Spriggs and Murphy. CM3 also beat Murphy twice, once at RT and once at LT.
Donster
August 06, 2018 at 07:01 am
I hope Adams is the real deal. But I worry that he is able to eat up those players lined up across from him because they are not that good. And we know how bad Spriggs has been. If CM3 is beating Murphy twice, that doesn't bode well for Murphy.
We will find out more Thursday night against competition they have not played against. That will help sort things out a bit.
dobber
August 06, 2018 at 08:34 am
I'm more encouraged that Adams IS beating up on lesser competition than anything else. If he couldn't do that, what could we really hope for when he goes up against the 1s?
" If CM3 is beating Murphy twice, that doesn't bode well for Murphy."
CMIII might not be the player he was 6 years ago, but he's no slouch when his legs are right. Gilbert has shown some tenacity and an ability to beat the guy across from him in game action. Murphy lost 2/3 of last season to injury and, with only a couple padded practices in, likely is still getting his legs under him. Let's let this play out.
Thegreatreynoldo
August 06, 2018 at 09:01 am
There have been a couple of tweets describing the battle between Adams and King as epic, FWIW. Good point about Murphy, though he was beaten three times last night: CM2 x2 and Gilbert.
KnockTheSnotOutOfYou
August 05, 2018 at 08:11 pm
I'e never been a Sprigg's believer and it is because he has bad feet. Very slow and that was even before the weight gain. He has a tackle body with a guards feet.
I'm hoping I'm wrong but I dont ever think he will be a quality tackle even as a backup. Would not be surprised if he doesn't make the team this year even with the major weakness the Pack has at backup tackle after the starting two tackles.
4thand1
August 06, 2018 at 08:56 am
The d line looks poised to get pressure up the middle. Adams will be a huge plus and an extra body to rotate in and out. The pressure from the outside will be key, CM, Perry, blitzes.
Bure9620
August 06, 2018 at 10:13 am
I was pretty jacked up when we drafted him, I thought 3rd round was great value. He was the number one college recruit in the country if I remeber correctly. He was pretty dominant at Auburn. Maybe a 5 star recruit that actually makes an impact in the NFL?
NoNonsense
August 06, 2018 at 11:59 am
Adams could be a guy that is much more productive in the pros than he was in college, like a certain 3rd round pick to the west who just got paid handsomely. I think Hunter had a grand total of like 4 or 5 sacks in college.
Really it comes down to scheme, Adams may have had more impact last season even after missing camp had Capers used his guys to rush the passer first rather than being a run first defense, except obvious passing situations. He preferred his defenders to bull rush and collapse the pocket rather than use speed and quickness to beat their man.
In Pettines attacking defense he and everyone will be allowed to penetrate and disrupt by whatever means necessary. So Clay and a few others might experience a rebirth in this defense at least as far as QB hurries, hits and sack numbers.
HankScorpio
August 06, 2018 at 06:34 pm
A long while ago, I read an analysis that suggested DL was the hardest position for rookies to make an impact. I don't know if that still holds true. It certainly was for Kenny Clark, who did nothing as a rook but was an absolute beast in yr 2.
If Adams can make half the yr 2 jump that Clark did, the Packers are going to have a really good defense. Having a deep, talented DL allows everything to fall in to place very nicely.
Oppy
August 07, 2018 at 01:23 am
TO be fair, Clark wasn't given many reps as a rookie (Edit: 333 defensive snaps in 2016, honestly, more than I expected- he had more than double that in 2017 with 684), but there were a number of plays where he showed really good lateral pursuit through trash along the line chasing down run plays for large body. He definitely showed some promise on limited snaps.
It's generally regarded that DL that play inside take about 3 years to get their bodies ready to handle the pro game. One nice thing about Kenny Clark is even at his young age, he came in with impressive overall strength with a somewhat unusually athletic cut to his frame (compared to many DL that have more... I'll be nice and call them "Dad bods" lol )
Sky's the limit for Clark. He's turning out to be a legit anchor even though his body is more compact than your typical massive NT.
Packer_Fan
August 07, 2018 at 08:19 am
This is a piece of what the Packers need. Depth in the Dline. As the season wears on and linemen wear down in the late stages of the game. With Daniels, Clark, Wilkerson, Lowry and Adams making an effective rotation, there should be fresh legs at the end of the game. Also, this is helpful for injuries. For that will happen.