Packers 2017 Recap: DL Montravius Adams
An explosive if inconsistent interior pass rusher in college, Montravius Adams joined a competitive defensive line group in Green Bay and seemed ready to scrap for playing time from the first moment he stepped on the field.
2017 Stats
- Appeared in seven games with no starts (66 snaps on defense, 22 on special teams)
- Recorded one tackle and one assist
Expectations going into the season: Low
Expectations were: Not Met
Analysis: Raw Adams is the invisible man of the 2017 draft class
Even sidelined due to injury, Montravius Adams drew rave reviews early in his first training camp with the Packers.
“His pass-rush moves are ridiculous,” Ricky Jean Francois told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I thought it would take him a while to adjust to the NFL and have to change from college moves to NFL moves, but I think he already adjusted.”
Jean Francois might have been a little less effusive with his praise if he’d known that Adams would be the one to precipitate his final release in Green Bay, but he surely understood the reality that a third round pick was always going to get preference.
The question now, though, is whether Adams deserved to.
Activated for the first time in Week 3 against the Cincinnati Bengals, Adams played in just seven of the Packers’ final 14 games, finding himself a healthy scratch as often as he was on the field. When he did find his way into a game, you’d be forgiven for failing to notice: he generated almost no recordable impact on any game.
What’s worse, the Packers seemed to lose faith in Adams even as the season became more and more of a lost cause. After playing 16 snaps against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Adams managed just 22 snaps over the final five weeks of the season.
It is worth noting that defensive linemen do sometimes develop slowly, and Adams may yet become a player. But for now, he’s just the latest in a string of disappointing third round picks by Ted Thompson.
