‘Next man up’ at receiver sounds good, in theory

Even after a somewhat quiet start, Davante Adams has been by far the team's most productive receiver. What if he can't play at Dallas?

If the Green Bay Packers are without star receiver Davante Adams for Sunday’s showdown at Dallas – coach Matt LaFleur called Adams “day by day” after Monday’s practice – does the team have enough horses to pull off the upset?

“The confidence level has always been there,” receiver Geronimo Allison said on Monday. “One guy doesn’t stop the show. Not taking anything away from Davane, but it’s a next-man-up type of league. It takes all 11 to be successful. Davante may be ready; he may not be. We’ll see what we’ll have and what personnel we’re going out there with. Whoever’s out there, the expectation is for you go out there and do your 1/11th.”

Doing your “1/11th” is one of LaFleur’s favorite phrases to the team. Replacing Adams, who potentially could miss the Dallas game with a toe injury sustained in Thursday night’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, would take sizable contributions from other members of the pass-catching corps.

Last season, Adams recorded 111 catches – one off the franchise record – and was targeted 169 times, just one behind the league-leading total of Atlanta’s Julio Jones. Had Adams not missed the Week 17 game against Detroit, he probably would have blown past both figures. The passing game continues to run through the two-time Pro Bowler, though not quite to the same extent as last season.

Through four games, Rodgers has completed:

– 25-of-36 passes (69.4 percent) for 378 yards and zero touchdowns to Adams. Adams caught 10 passes for a career-high 180 yards in about three-and-a-half quarters against Philadelphia.

– 16-of-28 (57.1 percent) for 217 yards and one touchdown to receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. He’s had big plays against Chicago and Denver but caught just a combined 6-of-12 targets for 66 yards vs. Minnesota and Philadelphia.

– 9-of-16 (56.3 percent) for 91 yards and two touchdowns to tight end Jimmy Graham. Graham went two consecutive games without a catch and failed to get two hands up for the potential tying touchdown vs. Philadelphia.

– 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) for 76 yards and two touchdowns to Allison. Allison entered last week’s games ranked near the bottom of the NFL in yards per target but had a 31-yard catch and a touchdown during a drive just before halftime vs. Philadelphia.

Adams’ 25 receptions are almost as many as the team’s next two players, Valdes-Scantling and running back Aaron Jones (12), combined. His 378 yards are almost as many as the combined total of 384 of the team’s next three players (Valdes-Scantling, 217; Graham, 91; Allison, 76). Adams’ yardage total against Philadelphia was almost as many as Valdes-Scantling’s season total.

For quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Adams is rightly the player through which the offense flows. If Adams is out of the lineup or limited, it would mean more opportunities for those other targets.

“Those guys are going to have to fill the void if he’s not able to go,” LaFleur said. “Obviously, that would create a pretty significant void but it is the next man has got to step up. It’s not like our standards and expectations are going to change. Certainly, we have to be mindful of what we’re asking certain guys to do because when you have a receiver like Davante, I don’t think there’s a route that he cannot run. He’s a dynamic receiver but those other guys, it creates opportunities for other guys to step up and make some plays.”

It’s an opportunity embraced by Valdes-Scantling, Allison, undrafted rookie Darrius Shepherd (zero career catches), 2018 undrafted free agent Allen Lazard (one catch for 7 yards last year) and 2015 undrafted free agent Jake Kumerow (eight catches for 103 yards and one touchdown for his career – all last year – but wearing an ice pack on his injured left shoulder on Monday).

“Definitely never want to see anybody go down out there,” Allison said. “We love this game. We go out there and put our bodies on the line. It’s just unfortunate. It’s a physical game (and) things happen, but definitely there’s opportunities every week, every day, for guys to go out there and make plays.”

Valdes-Scantling said Adams’ potential absence “doesn’t change anything” for the rest of the receiver room.

“Obviously, everyone has to step up,” he said. “You never want to see your No. 1 guy go down. We’ve got a very talented wide receiver room. Anyone can play any position. That’s one thing that we always harped on from Day 1, that guys have to be able to step up because in the NFL guys get hurt all the time. You never know when a guy’s going to go down so, when a guy goes down, another guy has to step up. That’s always been our focus.”

One potentially positive indicator of how Green Bay would fare without Adams is how it moved the ball on the final drive. While it failed to score the necessary touchdown in a 34-27 defeat, the Packers moved the ball form their 11 to the Eagles’ 3 before Rodgers’ pass to Valdes-Scantling was deflected and intercepted by linebacker Nigel Bradham.

“When you come up short, it’s like you didn’t get the job done,” Allison said. “If we can get a field goal, we’ll take that. If we come away with seven points, we’ll take it. When you come away with no points, you didn’t do the job. It didn’t get done.”