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GREEN BAY Justin McCray Color Rush Jersey , Wis. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers‘ Davante Adams can trace his ascent to becoming one of the most productive receivers in the NFL to a cold night in late November four years ago.That game against the New England Patriots is proof of how much a rookie must be prepared at any time to step up, even against the toughest of opponents.“Well I mean, I let everybody know as far as my approach to the game ever since I got here was just to be ready at all times,” Adams said this week.It’s a lesson that the Packers’ current crop of rookie receivers can draw from when Green Bay faces New England again on Sunday night at Foxboro.In 2014, Adams took advantage of more looks when the Patriots decided to focus on then-top Packers wideout Jordy Nelson. Adams had six catches for 121 yards on 11 targets, getting as many receptions and targets as he had drawn the three previous games combined.“Yeah, that was probably my coming out game,” Adams said.Now Adams is quarterback Aaron Rodgers‘ top option, the receiver that usually draws an opponent’s best cornerback. Adams has had at least 132 yards receiving in each of his last three games.“Well, he’s big for us. I think he can do it all from the wide receiver position and we’re expecting a lot of attention by the Patriots secondary” on Adams, coach Mike McCarthy said.If that’s the case, it could mean more looks for rookie wideouts Marquez Valdes-Scantling or Equanimeous St. Brown.The 6-foot-4 Valdes-Scantling has especially taken advantage of more work in recent games with injuries to starters Randall Cobb and Geronimo Allison. They returned last week, but Valdes-Scantling still caught a touchdown pass last week, his second in three games.Adams has offered simple, but important advice to the rookies https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Marwin-Evans-Jersey , just like how Nelson did to Adams four years ago.“Don’t try to be (Adams.) Don’t try to be Cobb, don’t try to be (Allison). Don’t try to be anybody else that you see,” Valdes-Scantling said in recounting a piece of advice from Adams.Valdes-Scantling could draw another start against the Patriots with Allison listed as doubtful for Sunday after injuring his groin in practice this week to go with an already sore hamstring. Cobb is questionable again with a hamstring injury but seems to be improving.“Be yourself. Everybody does things well, but what you do well, just keep doing it,” Valdes-Scantling added about Adams’ advice.Adams has become an all-around receiver. Explosiveness and an ability to make moves allow him to gain extra yards after a catch.But while the 26-21 win over the Patriots in 2014 might have been his springboard, it took a while for Adams to gain the kind of consistency that now makes him an important part of the offense.For example, following the Patriots game, Adams managed just four catches for 29 yards over his last four regular-season games combined in 2014. Then he had seven catches for 117 yards and a score in a 26-21 win in the playoffs over the Dallas Cowboys.Adams has 28 touchdown catches since the 2016 season. Opposing secondaries have caught on to Adams’ rise, yet he’s still coming up clutch for Rodgers.“He’s going to look to guys who maybe he hasn’t looked to as much coming up,” Adams said. “If that’s how they decide to go about the game, remove (me) from the game, I’m still going to do my best to contribute as much as I can to this offense. I know the rest of the guys will be ready as well.”Linebacker Nick Perry (ankle) and safety Jermaine Whitehead (back) are the only other players on the injury report, listed as questionable for Sunday. Between Russ Ball, Ted Thompson Jermaine Whitehead Jersey , and Brian Gutekunst, the Packers’ key personnel decision-makers have made a name for themselves as some of the best in football." />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesAcme Packing Company homepageHorizontal - WhiteAcme Packing Companya Green Bay Packers communityFollow Acme Packing Company online:Follow Acme Packing Company on TwitterFollow Acme Packing Company on FacebookFollow Acme Packing Company on InstagramLog in or sign upLog InSign UpSite searchSearchSearchAcme Packing Company main menuFanpostsFanshotsSectionsPackersOddsAboutMastheadCommunity GuidelinesStubHubMoreAll 321 blogs on Horizontal - WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections The APC PodcastPackers Film RoomFantasy Football AdviceCDTShare this storyShare this on FacebookShare this on TwitterShareAll sharing optionsShareAll sharing options for:Packers’ front office ranked among best in NFL in managing contracts & salary capTwitterFacebookRedditPocketFlipboardEmailPhoto by Stacy Revere/Getty ImagesJoel Corry is a former NFL agent. With that background, he is perfectly positioned to serve as a football business analyst, particularly in the areas of contract terms and negotiations, as well as salary cap management. That is precisely his role at CBS Sports, and this week he listed out the five NFL teams that he feels manage the league’s salary cap and player contracts in general the best.It should come as little surprise that the Green Bay Packers are one of the teams on Corry’s list.Under Ted Thompson’s leadership, the Packers were rarely in salary cap trouble. In part, this was due to Thompson’s reticence to dip into free agency; as Corry notes, “Thompson almost strictly preferred a draft-and-develop approach.” Of course, Brian Gutekunst’s two offseasons with the team have seen him take a different approach, signing five free agents to deals worth $7 million or more annually in that time.Starting with Andrew Brandt last decade and continuing with Russ Ball as the team’s primary contract negotiator, the Packers have a defined strategy when it comes to contract structures, an approach that Corry refers to as “vanilla” for its simplicity. “The only guaranteed money in Packers contracts is a signing bonus,” Corry says. “Bigger deals contain a third or fifth day of the league year roster bonus in the second and third years. The roster bonuses are supposed to be substitutes for additional contract guarantees.” Beyond that, the team protects itself against injuries by implementing active roster bonuses for each game.It’s easy to look back at the Packers’ big-money deals and see these concepts in practice. A quick spin through the contracts at Overthecap.com shows that whether it’s a homegrown player like Davante Adams or a new big-name free agent signing like Za’Darius Smith Aaron Ripkowski Color Rush Jersey , this is how the Packers operate. There are no base salary guarantees; only a signing bonus and those offseason roster bonuses which operate as pseudo-guarantees.Corry contrasts the Packers’ approach with that of the Pittsburgh Steelers, however. While Pittsburgh uses similar structures when signing deals, they have landed themselves in salary cap trouble, while the Packers have avoided major cap issues. Both a reason and a functional result of not being in cap trouble is the Packers not pushing off big cap hits into future seasons, something the Steelers have done extensively. Corry mentions Antonio Brown’s contract, which seemingly got reworked every year to move money from base salary into a signing bonus and thus spread it out over the remaining length of the deal. In the end, when he was traded to Oakland, Brown ended up costing the Steelers over $21 million in the 2019 cap — over $6 million more than his cap hiton a reworked contract in Oakland this year.It’s a chicken-and-egg problem; teams in cap trouble may shift salary to a bonus as a strategy to stay under the cap in the current year, but that just causes more issues down the road and forces the team into a vicious cycle. The Packers instead tend to pay as they go, being careful not to overextend themselves. Occasionally, the team does miss on a big-value signing, as they did with Nick Perry. However, even in that case the Packers chose to absorb the full brunt of Perry’s dead money in 2019 rather than pushing any of it off to 2020 with some creative accounting.Given the team-friendly nature of the contracts and the team’s careful accounting to avoid cap trouble, it’s easy to see why Russ Ball is revered as one of the best football financiers in the game today.