Davis seeks to put glaring miscues in past
GREEN BAY – He’s made the play his whole life. So often, Tyler Davis can visualize it when he closes his eyes. He takes a few steps off the line of scrimmage, turns to find the football and it sticks in his hands.
In his mind, the football stays in his hands. Every time. So when the Green Bay Packers tight end had Jordan Love’s pass bounce off his mitts in San Francisco, popping straight up before 49ers linebacker Marcelino McCrary-Ball settled under it for an interception, it was jarring.
When the football stuck in his receiving gloves a week later, only for New Orleans Saints linebacker Eric Wilson’s helmet to dislodge it, Davis was living the worst nightmare of any NFL player squarely on the bubble.
Two plays. Two turnovers. In the midst of fighting for a roster spot.
Now, Davis is crunched over at his locker after practice, relaxing a few days after the dust settled against New Orleans, and he knows the question is coming before it’s asked.
Where does he go from here?
“I would say flush (those plays) for your emotional side,” Davis said. “Because obviously you don’t want to make those mistakes. I mean, it sucks making those mistakes in those moments, but I feel like also, too, you don’t completely flush them to where you don’t learn something from it. You can take a bad situation, and you can learn from it. That’s what I feel like I’ve tried to do from both plays.”
Davis has ruminated on the two turnovers enough to know what he did wrong.
On the interception, Davis knew it would be a “bang-bang” play. He took three steps off the line of scrimmage before breaking his route inside. Four yards downfield, cornerback Deommodore Lenoir and safety Talanoa Hufanga converged on Davis as Love’s pass arrived. Davis said it was a perfect pass from his quarterback. The football would have hit Davis’ facemask if not his hands.
“I knew I was going to get a good collision there,” Davis said, “and I just took my eye off it. The ball went up in the air and into the other hands. I’ve caught that ball so many times in practice. Just a lack of concentration on the ball. That’s how I see it. I’ve just got to make that play.”
Davis took the drop hard. He knew it was an unwarranted interception on Love’s ledger. When he ran a similar underneath route one week later, running four steps off the line of scrimmage before planting and turning for the football in the left seam, Davis looked Love’s pass all the way into his hands.
Then he turned upfield.
Davis said neither play was more frustrating than the other, but the fumble was more difficult to understand. He’d done everything as he was taught, cradling the football with two hands against his chest as Wilson met him. The Saints linebacker put his helmet on the football, a textbook tackle, forcing the fumble.
“The guy made a perfect play,” Davis said. “He put his helmet in the perfect spot, and it just popped out as I was trying to secure it. It looked like I caught the ball, and I brought it in, and I tucked it with two hands.
“Maybe the second I tucked it when he got in there, I mean, we talked about it as a team. It seemed like I was doing all the right things, and sometimes that’s how this game works.”
‘We still have a lot of confidence in Tyler’
A third-year tight end, Davis knows how business works in the NFL. The Packers didn’t draft a tight end this spring, in part because that’s how their board fell, but also for optimism Davis could develop. General manager Brian Gutekunst said after the draft he thought the Packers “really have something there” after Davis played 14 games last season.
He opened camp taking first-team reps, one cut above the bubble. Entering Thursday night’s preseason finale at Kansas City, after two turnovers and a holding penalty against the Saints, Davis finds himself fighting for a job. That doesn’t mean the Packers soured on him.
LaFleur indicated Davis might be a player worth their patience.
“We still have a lot of confidence in Tyler,” LaFleur said. “Certainly, I know he was disappointed with the fumble, and I know he had a holding penalty, but he’s done a lot of good things, too. It’s maybe not as glaring as those two plays in particular, but I feel like he’s definitely done a good job in a lot of aspects.
“He’s still a young, developing player. I think there’s a lot of growth there for him, and we haven’t lost any confidence in him over two plays.”
If there’s any silver lining for Davis, it’s that his immediate role on the 53-man roster won’t be on offense. With Robert Tonyan activated off the physically unable to perform list, the Packers tight end depth chart is complete. The bottom of the roster will be filled with special-teams contributors. Davis knows that’s his ticket to a spot on the 53, no different than his first two NFL seasons.
LaFleur indicated Davis’ special-teams ability could earn a roster spot.
“His value on teams alone,” the coach said, “it’s definitely noticeable.”
A former college quarterback, Davis said he embraced the importance of special teams after transferring from Connecticut to Georgia Tech as a senior. Davis remembers Georgia Tech coach Geoff Collins having a unique way of emphasizing special teams as a priority. At team dinners, the first group to get food was the first punt unit. Before the seniors. Before the captains. Before the starting quarterback.
For Davis, something clicked during those team dinners. He’s made his living on special teams. Davis’ 232 special-teams plays last season were 111 more than his offensive snaps. If he’s cracking the Packers roster, it’s as a special-teams contributor first.
“I was always instilled in college,” Davis said, “that special teams was the biggest priority that you had to take seriously. So I feel like for me, that’s something that I always felt about. Don’t get me wrong, I want to be a great tight end. But I always know, in the back of my mind, that special teams is always a big priority for myself.”
Davis’ intangibles make him a solid special-teams player
Davis has the prototypical blend of size and speed for special teams at 6 feet, 4 inches and 252 pounds. “A lot of these guys,” Davis said, “are either smaller than myself, or bigger and can’t move as well as myself.”
It’s why tight ends – a position group of big, fast players – are so important for filling out the special-teams unit.
What separates Davis is his instincts. He studies special teams as fervently as his offensive position, learning tendencies. If a blocker is set up tilting toward one side, Davis is able to quickly diagnose which angle he needs to take to cover a kick return.
“The reps have been so valuable to me,” Davis said, “to be able to see things before they happen.”
Davis hopes he can see a spot on the Packers’ 53-man roster for the second straight season after Thursday’s preseason finale. For a bubble player, there’s no secret how important those four quarters in Kansas City will be. He also knows the types of mistakes he must avoid.
The pressure could feel overwhelming. Davis said he’s blocking it out the best he can. He just needs to make the plays he’s made his whole life.
“I’m just looking at it like another game,” Davis said. “How I usually prepare. I haven’t changed anything. There doesn’t need to be any more pressure than there already is. I just look at it as another game.
“This is what I’ve done my whole life. I’ve played football since I was 6 years old, and that’s what I plan to do on Thursday, is to go out and play it like my 6-year-old self would.”