Rams’ Puka Nacua gives Davante Adams his No. 17, switches to No. 12 worn in college

Pro Bowl wide receiver Puka Nacua and the Los Angeles Rams are rolling out the red carpet for free agent signee wide receiver Davante Adams. 

Adams is a three-time first-team All-Pro who has worn No. 17 for his entire 11-year career with the Green Bay Packers (2014-2021), Las Vegas Raiders (2022-2024) and New York Jets (2024), and he obviously wanted to continue wearing that jersey in Los Angeles. However, Nacua has donned that number for the first two seasons of his NFL career with the Rams. In the end, he ceded the No. 17 to Adams with Los Angeles tweeting out a video that Nacua is switching his jersey number to 12, which is what he wore in college at BYU. 

The number change indicates Nacua had a change of heart after going on “The St. Brown Podcast” with Amon-Ra St. Brown and Equanimeous St. Brown and telling them he wouldn’t give up No. 17 for $2 million. The 2023 fifth-round pick has made $1.9 million in career earnings from his Rams rookie deal, per OverTheCap.com, so perhaps he eventually realized he needed to take whatever Adams offered him for the jersey number. Adams’ career earnings through 11 seasons are $141,858,402 million, per OverTheCap.com, so he definitely had the cash to eventually persuade the 23-year-old Nacua. 

“I can’t do that,” Nacua said to the St. Brown brothers when asked if he would let Adams take the No. 17 off his back. “He got Taco Bell bruh [referencing Adams’ commercials]. He got Taco Bell, he got [Air] Jordan. … Now I’m just going to make sure I text the Jordan guys ‘whatever he got, I got to get the one that’s slightly better than that. Whatever shoes he’s asking for, whatever gloves are coming out, I’m going to need you to slide those [over]. … Two mill [for the No. 17]? I don’t know. … I don’t think I would do it for two mill. … This isn’t Davante Year 5 getting traded to the Los Angeles Rams. … I ain’t got crazy money. Two mill could do me a lot. I could buy a whole lot of land in Utah with that money. I could buy me a nice house over there.”

Now that the jersey number “conflict” is settled, Nacua and Adams are set to form perhaps the NFL’s most dangerous wide receiver tandem while catching passes from quarterback Matthew Stafford in head coach Sean McVay’s offense. Los Angeles was the team that came the closest to knocking off the Super Bowl LIX champion Philadelphia Eagles in the postseason, falling 28-22 in the NFC divisional round. Perhaps the addition of Adams is enough to get the Rams over the top in 2025.