CLEVELAND -- It was more than two years ago when coach Mike McCarthy dubbed Davante Adams the "MVP of the offseason" for the Green Bay Packers.
As long as we’re making up awards, here’s another one for the fourth-year receiver: Adams has been the Packers’ most valuable player during Aaron Rodgers’ time on injured reserve with a broken collarbone.
Adams cemented that in walk-off style -- literally -- in Sunday’s overtime win at Cleveland. After Adams’ 25-yard touchdown catch and run to win it, he kept going straight into the tunnel at FirstEnergy Stadium and didn’t stop until the rest of the team joined him.
“That was awesome,” Packers receiver Jordy Nelson said. “Honestly, that was a dream of mine to do. He kept running. I was going to push him in the back if he stopped. We were going to keep rolling. I was just hoping there wasn’t any sort of random flag where we had the awkward moment of having to come back out.”
It was the second time Adams bailed out the Packers against the winless Browns. He caught his first touchdown pass of the game with 17 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. Hundley has thrown eight touchdown passes since he took over for Rodgers on Oct. 15 at Minnesota and Adams has five of them.
Hundley completed 10 of the 12 passes he threw to Adams on Sunday against the Browns for 84 yards and the two touchdowns. They have connected on 68 percent of their passes this season compared to 63 percent for Hundley and all other players. Hundley has just three touchdowns and all eight of his interceptions when targeting someone other than Adams this season.
“That’s just my brother,” Hundley said after the game. “We’ve got a good connection. Davante is one heck of a receiver -- showed it again [Sunday night]. It’s fun throwing him the ball. When you have three horses like we do out there -- Jordy, [Randall] Cobb and Davante -- any one-on-one situation with them, I like. Davante made a good play on the ball and scored a touchdown for us.”
Sunday’s game could have turned out much differently if a second-quarter altercation had been viewed differently. Browns safety Kai Nacua was penalized after it appeared he tried to head-butt Adams, who became upset and shoved one of the officials. It could have been grounds for ejection, but Adams said it was accidental.
“The ball was overthrown and then [Nacua] kind of pushed me at the end of it,” Adams said. “I didn’t like that, so I gave him a little push. Yeah, the ref kind of flew in there, but I’m on their sideline. I bumped the ref a little bit, but it was nothing where I was trying to harm him or nothing threatening. It was more, I’m over on their sideline and there’s a lot going on. I didn’t really realize who was there. I talked to him. … I talked to him even then, and I talked to him after halftime as well.”
Adams has 46 catches for 543 yards with Hundley in charge of the offense. Cobb (28 catches) and Nelson (27) have taken on a secondary role without Rodgers.
“It’s not [an] easy task,” Adams said of Hundley. “It doesn’t matter who’s filling in for No. 12, it’s no easy task to step in there and get the job done, especially when everybody is used to seeing it done a certain way and at a certain level. He had a lot of pressure on him so far. So obviously we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen for the rest of the -- next week or whenever, just for the future of this -- but I like what Brett said and I like his growth so far.”
Adams’ future, too, is up in the air. He’s scheduled to become a free agent this offseason but if he wasn’t already the Packers’ top priority to re-sign, he should be now.
“Flat out he’s a stud,” left tackle David Bakhtiari said. “I mean, he’s definitely matured a lot not only as a player, as a person and as a playmaker. He’s a good player and he’s going to get what he deserves -- hopefully here.”