Packers safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix recently said that the team’s draft-and-develop approach can create issues if/when key starters are injured and unproven players are expected to step up. Packers receiver Davante Adams agrees with that assessment.
“I mean, it’s a clear thing,” Adams said in an interview that debuted on Wednesday’s PFT PM podcast and aired on Thursday’s PFT Live. “You see it around the league. The more veteran, I don’t want to say backups, but when you have your two-deep [depth chart]. You start looking into your depth and the more veteran guys you have available the better off you can be. Not taking anything away from the Packers and how they draft and develop or anything like that because we have a very good team and we have some solid depth as well. But having those veteran guys that have seen it before and they’ve been out there for a little while definitely gives you a better chance to win the game.”
Although Adams meshed well with quarterback Brett Hundley after starter Aaron Rodgers suffered a broken collarbone, the team wasn’t the same without one of the best quarterbacks in league history. So how far would the Packers have gone if Rodgers hadn’t been injured?
“I think you know the answer to that,” Adams said. “I think I do and the rest of the world as well. It would’ve been a completely different season. It kind of threw us off a little bit. Wasn’t expecting anything like that to happen to our leader, you know, one of the best quarterbacks to ever play this game. So when that happens it takes a toll on your team. Makes you have to adjust really quick and you know we didn’t adjust quite as quick as we wanted which put us in a tough position and led to a whole, ‘Run the Table, Part Two.’ Obviously [we] couldn’t get that done and I had to leave that game [against the Panthers], that was a crucial game for us. So it’s a sad thing but it’s definitely not something that’ll stop us from moving forward in 2018.”
In 2018, the Packers will have Rodgers and Adams and plenty of other great players back. Which will once again make them favorites to play deep into January. As long as their key players are healthy, since the veteran depth probably won’t be there if key players get injured, again.