Bombers’ Adams apple of Willy’s eye

A few years removed from an NCAA national championship with Auburn and a glowing rapport with NFL first-overall draft selection Cam Newton, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers receiver is looking to rekindle some of what made him a near-1,000-yard receiver at the turn of the decade.

“I’ve just been working hard,” Adams said. “I just seems like the hard work — the after-practice, during practice, the off-season — it’s just all coming into play now.”

It wasn’t long ago Adams was making a name for himself in the NCAA ranks. He was named MVP of the 2010 Outback Bowl and set the Southeastern Conference’s championship game receiving record with 217 yards the same year.

But the 25-year-old went unselected after forgoing his senior year in favour of the NFL Draft. He caught on, ironically, with Newton’s Carolina Panthers for a stint before moving to the United Football League and ultimately the CFL in 2013 with the Toronto Argonauts. He signed as a free agent in Winnipeg in the off-season.

“I feel like the situation is better here, I like it here better than I liked it in Toronto,” Adams said, dancing around questions regarding his usage out east.

Adams said he is thankful for the opportunity Toronto gave him after his NFL well ran dry, but he feels unleashed in Winnipeg.

Case in point: Adams has exploded for 280 yards over the past three games, hitting the century mark in two contests. He’s put up big gains as well, with a season-long 79-yard touchdown in Calgary proof positive of the deep threat he represents.

But it didn’t come quickly. Adams quadrupled his yardage totals from the first two games in Week 3, as quarterback Drew Willy had looked elsewhere to start the season. But his patience, and perhaps his attitude, has paid dividends.

“He wasn’t getting the number of touches a skilled position player would like and he just kept working and celebrating his team’s successes until the ball started coming his way,” Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said. “In his own way, he’s a real leader. That group looks at him now as the way to do it.”

Adams doesn’t agree he got off to a slow start, stats be damned.

“Definitely not,” he said. “We came out against Saskatchewan and we won. It doesn’t matter to me if I catch zero balls… if we win, that’s a plus for me. I don’t think it was (slow), I think it was just timing.

“It’s always good to catch the ball and contribute to the team. I just want to help in any way possible.

“I just feel sometimes I want to be on the field in some kind of way — anywhere — special teams, offence, defence — I just feel I can some way make a difference. That’s my work ethic.”

The recent on-field chemistry with Willy isn’t anything new, he insists.

“I think it was there, but the timing has been right over the past few weeks,” Adams said.

Adams feels the team’s gelling in a way that brings him back to his college days in Alabama.

“The team chemistry is off the charts,” he said. “It’s almost like a college team where you’ve been around these guys all day. You go to class with them, you went to meetings with them, this and that, you’re just around the guys a lot. It’s sort of different.”

And the receiving corps has made a pact within its own circles.

“Our rule in the receiver room is to (make them) tackle you,” Adams said. “We aren’t running out of bounds, we aren’t shying away from nobody. We are just trying to make plays for the offence. It’s contagious around the whole room.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

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