Sunday's Week 2 matchup provides some great storylines for the Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. One of the big ones is that this is a playoff rematch from last year. The more intriguing storyline though is this will be Carlton Davis' first game against his former team since they traded him in March.
The Lions are pretty aware of what it means that they have a corner that spent the last six years going up against both Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Lions head coach Dan Campbell spoke about that on Wednesday.
“Yeah, I think that helps. I think he’s very familiar, obviously, with them. He’s competed against – he and (Buccaneers WR Chris) Godwin now for a long period of time, so he’s got a really good feel there. But on the flip side of that, so does (Buccaneers WR Mike) Evans, right? So, they kind of know each other’s tricks of the trade, so it ought to be a pretty good battle whenever they're on each other. But that helps, and certainly, we’ll pick his brain a little bit as we go here, as to just different thoughts and things. But I know this, I’m glad we got him. So, it’s good to have him out there running around. I thought that was a good Week 1 showing for him and he’ll only get better.”
I thought Campbell made a strong point there. While it's great that Davis has competed against Evans and Godwin for the last half decade and he knows their moves, they've also competed against him and know his moves. Still, it's something to be aware of and Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield is definitely showing his awareness too.
“He provides the game changing plays and the ability to do that. Obviously, he [has] good ball skills and he’s very familiar with our guys, Mike [Evans] and Chris [Godwin]. He’s covered them a lot in practice and whatnot, so we just have to be on the same page, give him some different looks, and not let him get a chance to make plays on the ball.”
There should be a lot of different looks from both teams on Sunday, but make no mistake that wherever Carlton Davis is, your eyes should be there too. This is going to be the most fun thing to watch all day. Davis is ready to go too.
"They're just the next opponent in our way, and it's a long journey, I do have a lot of love for those guys over there, but on Sunday, it's football, man. There are no friends on the field, and there won't be on Sunday."
