Carlton Davis: Top-10 corner in football?
Even with injuries this season, Davis was statistically one of the best corners in football. Davis finished the regular season tied for seventh in total interceptions with four, tied for second in passes defended with 18, and accomplished this in just 14 games.
A corner that shows up on the stat sheet is exactly what the Buccaneers have desperately needed during the past few seasons, but Davis excels even beyond that.
Corners in press coverage are usually the hardest to find on the box score. If NFL quarterbacks generally have three seconds to get the ball out, a good press corner can keep the receiver locked up at the line of scrimmage long enough to cause the quarterback to move on to their next read. The quarterback doesn’t throw a ball at the covered receiver to create stats for the defender, but it shows success by the corner nonetheless.
Davis is at his best when lined up as close to the LOS as possible, yet he has still been able to create turnovers at an impressive rate against some of the best talents in the NFL.
During the past two seasons, Carlton Davis has matched up with some of the best wide receivers in the NFL, including Michael Thomas and DeAndre Hopkins, and come out with an individual win. For those who didn’t see last week’s game, Davis and the rest of the Buccaneer secondary held Thomas to zero total catches on four targets.
Davis has exploded onto the scene as one of the best corners in football in 2020 and will have a large contract coming his way, but he made himself even more money last week, and he has the opportunity to do the same this weekend.