Penn State Football’s Adrian Amos among NFL’s most ‘under-appreciated’

Former Penn State Football safety Adrian Amos is one of the top players at his position in the NFL, and a critical piece of the Green Bay Packers’ success

The Green Bay Packers made it to the doorstep of the Super Bowl, falling to Tom Brady and the eventual champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship Game back in January, largely thanks to MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers. But the contributions of the Packers’ defense can’t be ignored.

Last season, the Packers finished ninth in total defense, seventh in passing defense, and were 13th against the run.

Pivotal to the Packers’ success, particularly in the secondary, was former Penn State Football standout Adrian Amos.

Amos finished last season with a career-high 83 total tackles, two sacks, and two interceptions, as Pro Football Focus’ second-ranked safety in the NFL.

Still, according to NFL.com’s metrics, Amos is among the more “under-appreciated” players in the league:

"Amos just led the Packers in snaps played for the second straight season. In coverage, measuring his pursuit (how often his hips were facing the ball/speed to the ball), he ranked fourth-best in the NFL. Pro Football Focus agrees with that computer-vision intel, counting nine forced incompletions on 42 targets in coverage for a 21.4 percent rate, the fifth-highest mark in the NFL (min. 25 targets). This helped give him a lofty 91.5 PFF grade in coverage this past season. Add in his 90.1 grade in run defense from 2017, and Amos is one of just six defensive backs to post a 90-plus in PFF’s grading in coverage and against the run since the Penn State product entered the league as a fifth-round pick back in 2015. I will note that Amos’ run-stopping production was not the same level of efficiency this past season as it had been in years prior, but part of that was strategic in terms of pre-snap alignment."

If Rodgers continues to stay away, even though the Packers have no motivation or reason to actually trade him, the defense is going to factor more significantly into Green Bay’s successes or failures in 2021.

Regardless, with even more scheme familiarity and experience, look for Amos to continue to be a focal point of the Packers’ secondary and key to their success.

Prior to being chosen by the Packers in the fifth-round of the 2015 NFL Draft, Amos produced 101 total tackles, nine tackles for loss, three sacks, and intercepted three passes in four seasons as one of the Nittany Lions‘ key defenders.