When Carlton Davis was acquired from Tampa Bay, I was ecstatic. It felt like the missing piece to this secondary. It only took a 3rd round pick to acquire him, and the Lions got two 6th round picks back on top of it. He was relatively young at only 27 years old, and fit exactly what we needed at corner. He’s big, long, strong and sound in man coverage, which the Lions play more than anyone else.

He came into Detroit with 324 tackles, 9 interceptions, and 73 passes broken up. So far in Detroit, he has 54 tackles, 2 interceptions, and 11 passes broken up. All are right along with, or higher, than his career average. His play in the run game has been very good this year, as he has been very physical and a sound tackler.

To start the season, things were a little shaky in the Lions defensive backfield. They led the league in pass interference penalties with 17 flags through 13 games. Davis was a big reason for that, having 4 PI calls, along with 3 other penalties on him. There was definitely an early adjustment period.

On the season, Carlton Davis has a PFF grade of 73.6, 27th among all corners. He also has a coverage grade of 71.8, 39th among corners. He has allowed only 43 catches, ranking 15th among corners. The worst part for Davis so far has been his passer rating allowed, with an 87.9, ranking 120th among corners. While these numbers aren’t terrible, they aren’t quite what you’d hope for out of Davis. We do have to take into account that the Lions play more man coverage than most, and Carlton is 2nd in the entire league in man coverage snaps. The 1st ranked corner is Terrion Arnold, the Lions rookie cornerback.

However, as the season progressed, Davis and the rest of the secondary got much better. Since week 9, Davis has taken a huge leap. He is the #1 graded corner on PFF with an 83.1 grade. He has a coverage grade of 86.4, also #1 in that span. He only allowed a 56.3 passer rating, ranking 12th among corners. He had a 2 interception performance against the Texans as the Lions overcame a 5 interception performance from Jared Goff, largely due to Davis’ play in the game.

With all of that said, the Lions need even more from Davis and the rest of the defensive backs with all of their injuries up front. The Lions have a league leading 13 defensive players on injured reserve, and have still continued winning. But, they can’t count on that in the playoffs, and likely will need everything they can get against the Bills at home Sunday. Davis, along with the other defensive backs, will need to play very well against the Josh Allen led offense.

I expect Davis to keep up his production, especially with the Lions getting some help up front this week with DJ Reader and Alim McNeill likely coming back. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed, and hope the Lions can stay healthy going into the playoffs.

Go Lions. #OnePride.

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