Over the past decade, the average retirement age for NFL wide receivers has been 29 years. For the now 33-year-old Davante Adams, that thought had crossed his mind before entering Los Angeles. However, just six months after signing a two-year, $44 million contract in March with the Rams, the wideout has a clearer picture of his NFL future.

“I’m staying focused on just if I can continue to run 21-22 miles an hour at 33 years old,” Davante Adams recently said on The Stephen A. Smith Show. “Whatever it is, the good Lord keep blessing me with my health, so I can only control so much. But I like to think that where I’m at right now, I don’t need to think about retiring.

“Unfortunately, coming into the season, that was a thought out of my mind, just based on how things have been going lately, that could be the reality here soon. But we’ll finish this year out, and then we’ll have a better idea coming out of this year. But I still won’t be able to say next year or the year after that exactly, but keep working. And good Lord keep blessing me, man. Hopefully, we’ve got plenty more time.”

In 12 years, the only other team that initially excited Adams was the one that drafted him, the Green Bay Packers. But after asking for a trade after spending eight years with the team, he was looking for three things in his next team. One, he wanted to win with a good quarterback. Two, he wanted to have a good connection with the coach. And three, he wanted to succeed and add to his resume.

With the Rams, all three boxes were checked.

With head coach Sean McVay, he’s just another nerd talking about the Xs and Os of the football game. In fact, the head coach himself admitted that they have similar personalities. With his teammates, he has found a college-type camaraderie where they agree that they can talk about anything with the wideout. On the field, that connection has certainly helped.

In 14 regular-season games for the Rams this 2025 season, Adams caught 60 passes for 789 yards and scored 14 touchdowns (the highest receiving TDs in the NFL in 2025). As Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford’s top target, Adams played a massive role in the Rams’ 12-5 record and their return to the playoffs.

But the season hasn’t been completely smooth for Davante Adams.

He missed the final three weeks of the regular season after suffering a concerning hamstring injury in Week 15. It was an issue he had already been dealing with this season, and he re-aggravated it in that game. Although Adams returned for the Wild Card game against the Carolina Panthers, he took a hard hit to the head in the third quarter. Now, Davante Adams has cleared concussion protocol and will be available for the Divisional Round.

Even at 33, the Rams’ wideout remains one of the most accomplished receivers of his generation. Over his career, Adams has totaled 1,017 catches for 12,633 yards and a league-high in active players with 117 touchdowns, along with six Pro Bowl nods.  It’s only natural for a player with such a résumé to want a little more time, and maybe even one last, perfect ending.

Davante Adams’ career started in Green Bay, and during eight seasons with the team, he built a legendary connection with quarterback Aaron Rodgers. He recorded 669 catches for 8,121 yards and 73 touchdowns in that span. Then, after three turbulent seasons split between Las Vegas and New York, Adams finally landed in Los Angeles, and this time, things felt different. 

During the Rams’ offseason program in June, Adams said in the short time since he’d been in Los Angeles, there wasn’t the same “dark cloud over the building” that he had experienced on previous teams.

“It’s a glaring difference when you come into a building like this,” Adams had said.

In fact, Adams now says he can’t imagine himself finishing his career anywhere else as long as Stafford and Rams’ head coach Sean McVay are still around.

“That is very, very, very fair to say,” Davante Adams responded to Smith asking about his Rams tenure. “I like to think that I don’t wanna make any more stops, man. I’ve already played for more teams than I thought I would. So, yeah, I would love that this could be my last stop.”

Back in March 2022, Davante Adams asked the Packers to trade him because he wanted a fresh start in a place he could call home long-term. At that time, he believed that the place was Las Vegas, but after 37 games with the Raiders, he wanted out. So, during the 2024 season, a frustrated Adams pushed for a trade to the Jets to reunite with Rodgers. But that reunion lasted just eleven games as New York released Adams on March 4, 2024. 

It didn’t take long for him to realize that Los Angeles was where he should have been all along, even if his path to Los Angeles was turbulent.

Has Davante Adams finally found his home in Los Angeles?

Last year, Sean McVay personally recruited Davante Adams over the phone, explaining exactly how he would use him in the Rams’ offense. Just a few months later, the Rams have already won a playoff game, which marked Adams’ first postseason win since 2020. But even before the playoffs began, Adams made something else very clear: he plans to retire whenever Matthew Stafford does.

Matthew Stafford and Davante Adams are under contract in Los Angeles through 2026, and Adams believes his QB could easily play into his 40s. 

“No, there’s no reason why he couldn’t or shouldn’t,” Adams said on the Rams’ podcast last month. “I’m working on that. I’m willing to do this as long as – I told him, I actually made a joke, whenever you stop, I’m done, so it’s up to you.”

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Sure, Davante Adams admits his body feels the wear and tear of 12 NFL seasons. But he also knows that he’s finally in a stable, winning organization with a real shot at something he’s never had: a Super Bowl ring.

In Los Angeles, Davante Adams has finally found what he has been searching for all along. For the first time in years, all the boxes are checked for Adams to build on what he has already accomplished and chase the kind of ending his career truly deserves. And he knows, LA could be his forever home…

“Coming here, this has turned out to be exactly what I was looking for the whole time,” Adams told ESPN.