Adams sits opposite Puka Nacua in a passing game built around Matthew Stafford, and the two of them ate up nearly half of everything the Rams threw last year. Nobody in that receiver room is close to forcing a real split. Adams has leaned into it, working as much as a mentor to Nacua in practice as a route-runner himself, which tells you the Rams see him as a finisher who needs the ball put in a specific spot more than a guy who has to win off the line every snap.
What he does well hasn't changed: he wins in small spaces, boxes out smaller corners, and turns 50-50 balls into 70-30 ones inside the 10. Nobody in the league caught more of his own red-zone targets last season, and it wasn't close. That's a different skill than gaining yards after the catch or shaking a corner on a slant, and Adams doesn't really do those anymore. He's a closer. The Rams call his number when the field shrinks, and he answers.
The problem is the field shrinking that often isn't something Adams controls. The Rams got to the red zone more than almost any offense has in years, and touchdowns that concentrated in one place don't repeat just because the receiver is still good. Strip out the scores and there's shockingly little yardage under him — long stretches last season where he barely cracked a decent receiving day. His catch rate and his after-the-catch numbers both slipped to career lows, and he's now at an age where the Rams manage his practice load. If the trips inside the 10 come back to earth, there's not a lot of receiving volume underneath to catch him.
McConkey doesn't need a shrinking field to matter — he wins the whole one. With Keenan Allen gone from that Chargers offense, a huge chunk of vacated targets landed in his lap, and a new coordinator has built the passing game around getting him the ball in a hurry and letting his quickness do the rest. That's a receiver whose role grows regardless of red-zone luck. Adams still wins the argument in the one specific place drives actually end, and if you need a closer, he's the better bet. If you need someone whose workload isn't tied to how often his offense happens to get inside the 10, McConkey's the safer one.
