Carlton Davis and Michael Thomas rivalry growing deeper
By Rob Leeds
Is Carlton Davis vs. Michael Thomas the best player rivalry in the NFL?
The NFL is far more fun to watch when the players have a history. Backstories add to the fuel that already exists between opponents and deepen the divide between division rivals. The Buccaneers aren’t fond of any of the NFC South opponents, but the Saints may be the most widely despised amongst the fanbase.
The Buccaneers’ rivalry with the Saints runs deep. Every year, the flags fly early and often, and there are always bound to be words between players when tempers flare up. As the Buccaneers are starting to add legitimacy to their case as the top team in the NFC, the division rivalry with the Saints will only get better next year, and the players should have even more to fight for.
One duo that should start to gain traction as league rivals is Carlton Davis and Michael Thomas. The Buccaneer CB1 and the New Orleans star receiver have been going back and forth all season on social media, and both will come into the 2021 season ready to prove something.
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Considering Davis usually finds himself matched up with the top receiver for the other team, this duo should see a lot of action in the coming years, and the history already runs deep.
While Thomas has been one of the top receivers in the NFL for several years now, Davis has only recently entered the scene. As the Buccaneer CB1 during the end of last season and the entirety of this season, Davis has emerged as one of the league’s top corners. Davis and the rest of the Buccaneer secondary dominate in man coverage, and he already has several impressive stat lines against some of the best competition in the league.
As the 2021 season pushed on, Davis and Thomas had even more fuel to feed their rivalry. The Saints were very confident coming into the divisional round of the playoffs against a Tampa team that they dominated in the regular season, but Davis stepped up to give Thomas one of his worst stateliness ever in a massive win.
Carlton Davis and Michael Thomas waste no time
Davis made sure to let Thomas know what he thought about his performance on Twitter after the game.
During the NFL Championship, Thomas was quick to return the favor each time Davis gave up a touchdown.
The back and forth continued, and it has become clear that this is now one of the top rivalries in the NFL. Some players just don’t like each other (like Mike Evans and Marshon Lattimore), but taking it to social media ups the trash talk to an even bigger audience.
The matchups with the Saints in the regular season in 2021 are already going to be fiery contests, and the competition between Michael Thomas and Carlton Davis should be one of the most exciting storylines of those games in the future.
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