Packers’ Big Stars Lacked Recruiting Stars

The Packers, big underdogs for Sunday's NFC Championship, are led by two former underdogs

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jan 18, 2020 11:04 PM EST

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Davante Adams was a two-star recruit. In basketball.

In football?

“Is one-star a thing? I had to be one-star,” Adams said this week.

Aaron Jones was a three-star recruit with three offers. Hometown Texas-El Paso, Texas-San Antonio and New Mexico State aren’t exactly football powerhouses.

Aaron Rodgers, of course, went to Butte College; his journey to stardom began when he caught the eye of Cal coach Jeff Tedford, who was watching Butte tight end Garrett Cross.

This year’s recruiting cycle has come and gone, but the Green Bay Packers’ three biggest offensive stars are proof positive that it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.

“Absolutely, I think about it all the time,” Adams said. “You always get the scouting report and you see who you’re playing, what number they wear and what school they went to. I think about the success that I’ve had and the success I’m still hungry to have in my career, and that fires me up. I went to Fresno State. People disrespect it. You go in the locker room and talking to Alabama guys and they want to disrespect the school I went to and I’m like, ‘It clearly don’t mean nothing, because look where we are.’ So, we figured it out.”

Video: Davante Adams on path to NFL

Rodgers, Jones and Adams will share the offensive spotlight when the Packers take on the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. That the Packers are a touchdown underdog seems somehow fitting.

Growing up in Palo Alto, Calif., Adams’ focus was basketball during his first couple years of high school. He decided to join the football team and play quarterback as a junior. His cousin and former youth football coach, Eric Washington, suggested Adams play receiver, instead.

“He told me he thought I’d be a pretty good receiver,” Adams said. “And I was, ‘Uh, I guess. I won’t really touch the ball all that much. I guess I’ll try it and see what it’s like.’ I got an opportunity and obviously it’s been the greatest decision of my life.”

Actually, Adams touched the ball a lot – something that’s wound up being a theme throughout his football career. As a senior, he caught 64 passes for 1,094 yards and 12 touchdowns to help Palo Alto win a state championship.

Adams was recruited by four schools and chose Fresno State. After redshirting in 2011, he caught 102 passes with 14 touchdowns in 2012 and 131 passes with 24 touchdowns in 2013. In 2014, Adams was drafted in the second round by the Packers and lined up across from Seattle’s Richard Sherman in the NFC Championship Game.

On Sunday, he’ll do it again. Sherman, one of the great tacticians and minds among cornerbacks in NFL history, squaring off against Adams, arguably the best route runner in the league.

“Once I started realizing I could lose people at the line of scrimmage and essentially run a route on air, I figured that that was the way to go,” Adams, who was the ninth receiver drafted in 2014 but third in touchdowns, said of his dedication to his craft. “So, I just put a lot into that and, obviously, I made it a big part of who I am as a football player. I figured it’s much easier to run a route with a guy 2 yards away from me than right next to you. That’s the biggest thing when I watch guys like Jerry Rice. Back in the day you watch all his clips, you never see a guy hanging all over him. It’s never that. It’s always him running free.”

Jones was an all-state running back in the football hotbed of Texas. Despite being a three-sport standout who rushed for 1,800 yards as a senior, major colleges weren’t pounding on the door of Jones’ El Paso home.

“Nobody comes to El Paso,” Jones said of recruiters.

At UTEP, Jones rushed for 811 yards as a freshman, 1,321 yards as a sophomore and 1,773 yards as a junior before heading to the NFL. Jones was a fifth-round pick in 2017 and the 19th running back selected. Jones wasn’t even the first running back drafted by the Packers – that was Jamaal Williams. But Jones is eighth in the draft class in rushing and first in rushing touchdowns.

“It definitely fuels me,” Jones said of being lightly recruited. “It keeps me going because you see the guys who were five stars, most of them make it to the NFL. You’re still competing with those guys. I’ve always felt like I’ve been better than a lot of those guys and been competing but always been under the radar. The stars in high school, I think, has something to do with it. They get the bigger offers and things like that. Everything works out the way it’s supposed to.”

Jones led Green Bay with 1,084 rushing yards and was second with 49 catches. In last week’s playoff win against Seattle, Jones scored his 20th and 21st touchdowns of the season.

“I’d say very proud of yourself,” Jones said when asked what the three-star recruit would have said to himself this week. “You did everything you said you were going to do and more, and you continue to work hard. You never let anybody tell you you couldn’t do anything. I’ve always been told I was small, too little, wouldn’t make it in this league. Just put my head down and worked hard. Proud of that three-star kid, continue to keep working. That’s what I would tell him. The sky’s the limit for you.”