Lions Leader Carlton Davis
June 25th, 2024
The no BS leader of the Lions defense, former three-time Pro Bowl cornerback and current defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, seems to have a new favorite in his secondary.
That would be former Bucs cornerback (2018-2023) Carlton Davis.
The Bucs launched their 2018 second-round pick this offseason as part of a trade with rival Detroit. Tampa Bay gave up Davis’ big salary and two sixth-round picks and got back a valuable third-round draft pick.
Detroit’s pass rush and pass defense ranked near the bottom of the NFL last season and acquiring Davis was part of their commitment to fixing it.
All the rumbles out of Detroit sound like Davis has become top dog in the Lions secondary.
“He’s a quiet leader,” Lions defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend said during Detroit’s offseason program, via AL.com. “They watch how he works. They watch how he comes in every day and prepares. But he does a good job with them. He’s not going to be one that’s going to be just out here ‘Rah, rah.’ But in the room, you see him talking to the young guys, and that’s what it takes.”
Glenn sounds smitten.
“Listen, I been knowing about this player since he came out of Auburn… and he’s been a player that wants to get in somebody’s face and challenge,” Glenn said. “Nothing’s changed about that. He did it when he was in Tampa. I know he expects to do the same things here, so he fits, like, perfect with what we’re trying to do.”
So, allegedly, David fits “perfect” with the team many pundits thing is the favorite to win the NFC.
Hmmm.
Joe can’t wait to see how the Bucs’ decision to dump David and install Zyon McCollum pans out. It should be fun to watch, especially Week 2 at Detroit.
If the Bucs don’t throw deep to Mike Evans a few times, Joe will launch many blunt objects across JoeBucsFan.com world headquarters.
June 25th, 2024 at 5:47 pm
I like Davis but he couldn’t stay healthy. Part time player isn’t worth that salary.
June 25th, 2024 at 5:47 pm
Wish him well,except for Week 2. Also, wish him good health there, which he didn’t seem to have here.
June 25th, 2024 at 5:58 pm
He will be injured by week 3 and miss half the season. Good luck to them.
June 25th, 2024 at 5:59 pm
I was expecting a “wrecks sh!t” quote.
June 25th, 2024 at 6:02 pm
Always compared Davis to Xavier Howard. Yet Howard could Matthew tough tackles and get back up on running plays.
June 25th, 2024 at 6:06 pm
Davis excels in man coverage.
Bowles wants to play more zone.
Simple as that.
June 25th, 2024 at 6:45 pm
When you get a guy who excels at press man and actually let him play press man, it’s amazing that he plays well, right?
It’s always better to get press man specialists and line them up 20 yards off the ball in soft zone bust.
#AsToddEvolves
#AsRichardDevolves
June 25th, 2024 at 7:54 pm
My guess is we’re going to miss Davis.
No pass rush = zone coverage
Shaq, Gholston, Suh, VV, JPP = Press Man Coverage
D Line 2022, 2023 = Zone Coverage
June 25th, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Pear – you keep vomiting that same soft zone stuff up. Do you stats to back up the zone coverage %? I get as frustrated as the next fan when the corners play off, but this isn’t Mike Smith’s defense. Perhaps Ryan Neal limited Bowles ability to play man. I personally don’t know, but our D is not ALL zone all the time. Seems a bit of a waste to keep trying to make the same point repeatedly.
June 25th, 2024 at 8:24 pm
@74 Bucs Fan – what I was able to find is the Bucs during the first half of the season were playing zone over 60% of the time and man 38%. As the season progressed and the back field got healthier it was 51% man 47% zone per PFF in December of 2023. The Bucs were among the worst for giving up the big play in zone coverage but were WORSE in man. No player was worse in the Bucs backfield than Ryan Neal who gave up 87% pass completion rate 387 yards and 4 TD’s as the nearest defender in his first 10 games. By the end of the season the Bucs used zone a little over 47% of the time which was around the league average, but the trend early on in the season when CDIII and Jamel Dean were banged up was zone based.
I also found an article from November 2023 where Bowles said they don’t have the players to be successful in man coverage which is why they were playing more zone at the time.
June 25th, 2024 at 8:37 pm
The mere mention of Ryan Neal’s name makes me feel like I’m being hit in the head with a ballpein hammer. Thanks for the data, Fan. Easy to conclude the Bucs pass defense was among the worst in franchise history, 29th in the NFL.
Like the running game, there’s only room for improvement.
#AsToddEvolves
June 25th, 2024 at 8:59 pm
It’s interesting Dave because you aren’t wrong about the yards per game and avg yards per play given that up you profess constantly. The other half of that is the Bucs defense only gave up the 5th most points per game, they finished in the top half in takeaways and had the best red zone defense in the league for over half the season before slightly dropping to 3rd best by the end of the season.
Not only that no defense has given up fewer points than the Bucs over the last 3 seasons. All Bowles led defenses.
He has his weaknesses (time management being the most obvious) but I personally blame the Bucs maddeningly inconsistent offense for the Bucs problems. Especially in the red zone where they were ranked 27th in the league in red zone scoring and a two year streak as the worst running team in football.
This year, finally with assistants he has picked and players he wants in the building let’s see how he grows and what the Bucs can do.
June 25th, 2024 at 9:00 pm
“I been knowing”….is all I need to know.
June 25th, 2024 at 9:48 pm
Who is David?
June 25th, 2024 at 10:01 pm
Dave Pear Says:
“Easy to conclude the Bucs pass defense was among the worst in franchise history”
Ha – not even remotely close….
Do you not remember how terrible the 2012 Buccaneers secondary was?
Maybe you weren’t around back then – but the 1986 Bucs secondary (led by Rod “Toast” Jones) was literally the worst pass defense in LEAGUE history.
Plenty of other terrible Bucs defenses from the 80s and early 90s to choose from. Even more recently Lovie and Mike Smith both ‘led’ very very bad pass defenses as well. All that I’ve named and quite a few other years were much worse than what we saw last year.
June 25th, 2024 at 11:18 pm
Can’t believe we traded number 24 to the stinking lions.
Jason Lit much be thinking he can get similar coverage from Bryce Hall, who had some games with the Jets last year where he was solid, and even had the game winning scoop and score against the broncos.
All eyes on Bryce Hall this year
June 25th, 2024 at 11:27 pm
Pickgrin, no doubt Schiano and Lovie oversaw some horrid defenses, and Rod Toast Jones was a 1980s horror show.
I didn’t say “the worst” — but in the Bucs 47 + seasons they probably didn’t finish worse than 29th too often. Give up that many yards, and the points given up will follow.
June 26th, 2024 at 3:00 am
I too ask, “Who is David?”
June 26th, 2024 at 4:50 am
Hey, guys the “d” is right next to the “s”. As one who has created many fat finger typos, I get it.
June 26th, 2024 at 6:49 am
I’ll take what’s shaping up to be this years secondary over last years. Not sure who we picked with the 3rd we got for Davis, but that player shouldn’t be overlooked when grading the trade.
June 26th, 2024 at 7:17 am
We’re going to miss Davis. I think we underestimate how often teams would game plan away from him, so at times he didn’t pop on the stats. The Texans game was interesting in that Stroud went right after him, whether it was confidence or just plan rookie ignorance, I can’t remember if Davis was ever picked on so badly, and I think teams not attacking Davis more often, made him a little more complacent perhaps? Aside from solid coverage skills, he was also great at the line of scrimmage sniffing out screens and could make the tackle on the RB. I get availability is huge, and that his contract made things difficult since he couldn’t stay on the field, but Davis has been one of our better corners in recent history. I can’t remember the last time we had a corner that was good enough and/or ballsy enough to talk shit about a pretty damn good receiver in rival Michael Thomas, who I felt owned us a few years leading up to Davis being drafted. I think it was right before our huge playoff match in 2020 he was talking shi*, savage.
June 26th, 2024 at 7:18 am
We’re going to miss Davis. I think we underestimate how often teams would game plan away from him, so at times he didn’t pop on the stats. The Texans game was interesting in that Stroud went right after him, whether it was confidence or just plan rookie ignorance, I can’t remember if Davis was ever picked on so badly, and I think teams not attacking Davis more often, made him a little more complacent perhaps?
June 26th, 2024 at 7:58 am
Ya….it’s almost like they knew he sucked lol. Aka he gets burned. Let’s not forget what tyreek hill did to him here as well . Flat out goy embarrassed
June 26th, 2024 at 8:25 am
I like Davis and wish him well, except against us. Not too enamored with the coach statement of “He’s a quiet leader.” Yes, it sounds great in the locker room talking to the young players, building them up, and energizing them. We can all agree that Davis is a good guy. I guess we will find out what the perfect fit is when we play them. Hopefully it isn’t so perfect.
June 26th, 2024 at 7:39 pm
Apparently, Bowles has a lot of faith in McCollum.