Raiders star praises Renfrow, says ‘he’s definitely ahead of his time’
By: Gavin Oliver June 11, 2022

Last week, Clemson legend Hunter Renfrow talked about the chemistry he’s been building with fellow Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams.

Since Adams was traded to the Raiders from the Green Bay Packers in March, he and Renfrow have struck up a friendly competition on the golf course.

“It’s been a lot of fun competing with him on the golf course, for sure,” Renfrow told reporters last week, smiling. “We have a little bet that he’s not going to beat me the rest of the summer, so I gotta do that. But just the friendship that we’ve developed, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him.”

Adams responded to Renfrow’s comments Thursday when meeting with the media, conceding that Renfrow’s golf skills are ahead of his right now but pointing out that Renfrow has had more time to practice than Adams has had being in the Green Bay climate for the past eight years.

“I saw he mentioned that,” Adams said of Renfrow’s golf comment. “He made it seem like he just be killing me out there on the course. But he’s a better golfer than me right now, but you’ve got to take into account – and I don’t want to cut off your question – but being in Green Bay, that’s seven months out of the year that I can’t play golf. He’s been in Vegas and Oakland, so of course his golf game is going to be where it needs to be.”

On a more serious note, Adams — a five-time Pro Bowler and two-time first-team All-Pro — has a lot of respect for Renfrow and has already enjoyed being around him even though they’ve only been teammates for a short time.

Adams had plenty of praise for Renfrow, who is entering his fourth NFL season, earned his first Pro Bowl selection with a career season in 2021 and has agreed to a two-year, $32 million extension with the Raiders.

“It’s great, man,” Adams said of playing with Renfrow. “He’s an interesting dude because I’ve been around a lot of people that are like Hunter, but they’re never usually going into their, what is this, fourth year coming up? It’s never been a fourth-year with the type of football acumen that he has and his awareness and understanding why he does certain things.

“Because there’s people out there with a lot of talent, but they can’t sit there and break it down and tell you why they’re doing what they did with their footwork or the next rep, why they tweaked it a little bit because of the look that they had. So, his awareness and his football smarts, he’s definitely ahead of his time.”

Adams went on to say that he’s had fun talking football with another player in Renfrow who shares a similar mental approach to the game, and that they’ve been teaching each other things.

“Sometimes I’ll be sitting there just talking to him in the middle of an offensive meeting,” Adams said, “and we’ll be talking about releases and he’ll tell me what he thought, and I’m like, this is fun — this is fun being able to be with somebody who’s a lot like me mentally, the way that I approach the game, the way I attack it, always trying to find little small nuances, whether it’s something that the defense is doing or if it’s with footwork that I do. So, it’s been great. I’ve been learning from him, he’s learning from me.”

Adams added that he’s going to step up his golf game and get the better of Renfrow when they hit the links again this offseason.

“I am going to beat him on the golf course very soon,” Adams said. “He’s running away going to South Carolina, so it’ll be a few weeks that I can’t get him. But once we get a few off days in camp, I’m sure we’ll be picking it back up.”

–Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images