Davante Adams' presence at practice a welcome sight for Packers

GREEN BAY - If the early stages prove to be an accurate portrayal of his recovery, Green Bay Packers wide receiver Davante Adams appears to have escaped the collision with Chicago Bears inside linebacker Danny Trevathan relatively unscathed.

While Adams remains in the concussion protocol — meaning he is off limits to reporters in the locker room — he was on the field Wednesday and went through various drills with his teammates as a limited participant. He was seen catching passes from the JUGS machine and running routes without defenders during the portion of practice open to the media.

“That’s part of his protocol,” coach Mike McCarthy said during his pre-practice news conference. “So, he’ll probably be in a limited category, which is the goal for all these guys that are injured, to get ‘em down there, go through the rehab, prehab group and get into the limited fashion so we can evaluate.”

That Adams was on the field at all is relatively surprising given the vicious hit he absorbed, and his presence alone indicates swift progress through the protocol. A key factor in his recovery will be how Adams responds to the on-field movement from Wednesday. An independent neurologist must clear Adams before he can play in another game.

“It was great,” wide receiver Randall Cobb said of seeing Adams at practice. “I’m just glad to see him walking again, more importantly. When I went to the hospital and saw him the other night he was back to his normal self, joking around, trying to break out of the hospital. I’m just glad to see him in good health.”

Cobb and Trevathan were college teammates at Kentucky, where the latter was known for making plenty of tackles and always being around the ball. He was not known as a dirty player, according to Cobb, and Trevathan sent a text message to be passed along to Adams.

As with former Packers receiver Malachi Dupre, who was hospitalized after a brutal hit during the exhibition season, Adams had plenty of visitors last week, including quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

“I was encouraged seeing Davante at the hospital – whatever time we were there, 1 or 2 in the morning – and he was in good spirits,” Rodgers said. “I was there with Jermichael (Finley) and Malachi, and those were tough to see because they weren’t doing as well as Davante was. It is tough to refocus in those situations.

"There were a number of us there at the hospital checking in on him the next day and he just sounded like he was in a good mood. You hoped, obviously, for the tests to be clean, first of all, and then for him to be discharged and then take it from there. We all came back (to Lambeau Field) on Tuesday and he was in good spirits and feeling good. His neck felt good, so that’s really encouraging.”

The Packers are back to a normal practice schedule after the mini-bye over the weekend. Adams will continue working through the protocol in hopes of returning to the field Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.

Said McCarthy: “He feels great and he just wants to get back to playing football.”