When Davante Adams signed with the Los Angeles Rams, he was coming off a disastrous season with the New York Jets. It would have been impossible to predict that he would have the numbers he put up in 2025. His career uptick has to be attributed to his quarterback, Matthew Stafford. The former top pick in the NFL Draft has had an MVP year and a career that is guaranteed to get him a bust in Canton. He’s thrown to quite a few different receivers over his career, but is Adams the best of them all?
It has only been one season, but it’s been an incredible season for Adams with Stafford. He was targeted 114 times in 2025 and hauled in 60 receptions (56.6% catch percentage). His 789 receiving yards yielded 13.2 yards per catch, and 14 touchdowns, which means 23.3% of his receptions were in the endzone.
Stafford and Megatron teamed up from 2009 to 2015. Over those seven seasons, Stafford targeted Johnson 1,069 times, completing 605 of those passes (56.6%) for 9,532 yards (15.8 yards per catch) and 67 touchdowns (11.1% of catches were for touchdowns).
Nacua was the steal of the 2023 NFL Draft (5th-round, 177th overall). In his three seasons with Stafford, he has been targeted 432 times and hauled in 313 receptions (72.5% completion percentage when targeted). He has totalled 4,191 yards (13.4 per reception) and 19 touchdowns (6.1% of catches).
Kupp has played nine seasons in the NFL, but Stafford was his quarterback for just four of them. Over that duration, he was targeted 484 times and caught 346 passes (71.5% completion percentage when targeted). He amassed 4,206 yards (12.2 per reception) and 33 touchdowns (9.5% of his catches).
Kupp led the league in targets (191), receptions (145), and yards (1,947) in Stafford’s first season with the Rams, and then had issues with injuries. There’s no telling how amazing his numbers could have been. Nacua led the league in receptions this past season and only dropped 4 passes. Megatron led the league in targets (204), receptions (122), and yards (1,964) in 2012, which was preceded by leading the NFL in yards in 2011 (1,681). He led the league in touchdowns in 2008, before Stafford arrived.
Adams is the only receiver that Stafford has thrown to who led the NFL in touchdown catches. So, what should be valued more? A higher completion percentage when targeted seems important, but slot receivers like Kupp generally dominate that stat because they are being thrown to while running shorter routes. Outside receivers like Adams and Johnson will have a lower number there, because they make impossible catches, so QBs throw them impossible passes.
The fact that almost a quarter of Adams’ catches this year were for six points is crazy. In the end, it may not matter who the best receiver Stafford has ever thrown to is, and this whole article was just an exercise in numbers gathering for a writer obsessed with stats. If you made it to the end, I hope you had fun.
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