The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves at 6-8 after defeating the Carolina Panthers on the road Sunday, cracking open the door for them to extend HC Mike Tomlin’s no losing season streak at least another week.
However, they will face a tough test on Christmas Eve in Pittsburgh with the Las Vegas Raiders coming to town who are coming off their own thrilling win at home against the New England Patriots.
Speaking to the media Monday, S Terrell Edmunds was asked about All-Pro WR Davante Adams and what he brings to the Raiders offense, to which Edmunds replied that the secondary is for a tough day at the office to limit a player of his caliber.
‘He’s a dynamic guy,” Edmunds said about Davante Adams to the media Monday in the locker room on video form Steelers.com. “I wouldn’t say you can technically take away a dynamic guy like that, but just limit his targets, limit his catches. That’s the type of guy you just got to put two people on.”
Many wondered if Davante Adams would be able to keep up his prolific production this season after being traded from Green Bay to Las Vegas and make the change at QB from Aaron Rodgers to Derek Carr. Adams has responded with potentially his best season of his NFL career, having caught 86 passes for 1,275 yards and 12 TDs in 14 games played with several affected by injury and illness. He has proven to be one of the most difficult receivers to cover in the league thanks to his physicality at the catch point as well as being a wizard of a route runner, shaking defenders out of the cleats by generating separation.
Pittsburgh has struggled covering #1 WRs thus far in 2022, having the likes of Amari Cooper, A.J. Brown, and Tee Higgins baptize them for big games through the air. Adams is arguably the best name of that list and will challenge Pittsburgh to come up with ways to cover him without having a capable CB1 that can man up with him for most of the game. Edmunds pointed to getting two defenders on him by rolling the safety his way or bracketing him to limit the exposure Adams gets in single coverage.
However, the more that Pittsburgh focuses on limiting Adams, other weapons like Hunter Renfrow or Darren Waller could benefit from seeing easier coverage assignments. Still, limiting Adams’ impact in this game is Priority #1 for a Steelers secondary that must come up big to try and help this team secure their second-straight win on Christmas Eve.
