Cut Trevor Davis

[Pokerbrat2000]

A few months ago I actually wanted Davis cut/not make final roster, but I have to retract that statement. He may never do anything at WR, but he actually is a decent return guy as well as a good gunner and serves as your emergency WR. However, it appears that he still makes poor judgments on what to do with punts. I say appears, because I can't help wonder if sometimes he is being told to fair catch it, all of us see the open field and wonder WTF is he is doing? If that isn't the case, then Zook might be at fault for not coaching him up on making these good judgments required of a returner. If Zook IS giving him the freedom of making decisions AND has coached him well what a proper decision is, then I guess we have to take the good with the bad until Davis teaches himself. At this point, he is the best option on the team.

 

[7thFloorRA]

He is a good gunner but his return skills mean nothing when the rest of your special teams units are a Zook coached **** show that have every return called back anyways.

 

[sschind]

IMO the first and most important thing by far for any punt returner is to field the ball. If he is making fair catches and holding on to the ball he is accomplishing the most important part of his job. Return average and FC percentage are second and third. I don't see what the player sees and I don't know what he is experiencing the moment he decides to make the FC and I don't know if he is being told to make a FC so I am not going to second guess him too much. I thought the vikings returner was an idiot on that one punt not to call for a FC. Our gunner was almost in his pocket and I was afraid he was going to get called for interfering with the opportunity to field a punt.

Maybe Davis is too cautious but would you rather have him dropping the ball? I know I wouldn't.

 

[SoonerPack]

Not too mention the fact that it seems like anytime we return a punt or kick, there is a penalty on the play.

My buddy and I always talk about this. I would guess that 70% of returns have a flag thrown on them. I am honestly surprised when a return happens and there is no flag thrown. My favorite is the hold on a fair catch. Love it.

 

[gbgary]

Not too mention the fact that it seems like anytime we return a punt or kick, there is a penalty on the play.

that can happen on fair-catches too.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

My buddy and I always talk about this. I would guess that 70% of returns have a flag thrown on them. I am honestly surprised when a return happens and there is no flag thrown. My favorite is the hold on a fair catch. Love it.

Buck and Aikman were talking about that during the Saint-Cowboys game. While I didn't watch the entire game, that was one of the biggest sh*t show reffing jobs I have seen in a long time and.....that supposedly was "the best NFL crew of officials" Sean Payton burned all of his challenges early and just had to shake his head on a few missed calls he could have challenged later. Even Mike Pereira at one point said "can I just stop commenting now?"

 

[BrokenArrow]

I’m defending him and asserting that we need to give the guy the opportunity to improve before we pull a Casey Hayward and regret watching Trevor successfully field punts for a rival.

I would typically agree with that, however the untimely fair catches and also bad habit of letting catchable punts go over his head well outside of the 10 yard line were consistent problems last year and it does not appear he learned any different this year. When he called for a fair catch and passed up a guaranteed 8 yards which would be likely more than 10 yards and possibly a big gainer if he made a guy or two miss, then it was pretty clear he's still not the guy. He doesn't have the instincts. If he goes and returns punts somewhere else, fine by me. He's no Desmond Howard or Roell Preston and he never, ever will be. My gut tells me when his days as a Packer are over, his days as an NFL player are probably over as well.

 

[BrokenArrow]

Let's stop with the "THIS is the one thing you are pointing out?" argument. Please. EG had this on his mind and where do we go to offload such ideas? This beautiful site. I guess my question would be, is there a manual laying out which topics we need to hammer out first before we can get to TD and his fair catching? I don't know EG but I am guessing this is not the one issue he has with this team and its current predicament. If you don't want to comment on a special teams string then keep moving right along. Don't hammer a guy for pointing out a rather benign feeling he/she may have. Just saying...

Basically there are a myriad of threads already discussing other areas where improvement is needed. Improvement is also needed at PR. I'm not sure where the idea that only one thing at a time can be discussed. I think there are some on here who actually think a bunch of fans on a forum are going to have some effect IRL. Well, that's not the case. The "We have bigger things to worry about" argument is silly.

 

[Mondio]

He’s out for this game, so who’s next?

 

[BrokenArrow]

Davis moved to IR. We got a whopping 4 punt returns and one kickoff returns out of the guy and in exchange he got $630,000. I think his time in the NFL has just about expired. Looking forward to identifying a competent returner next year.

 

[OldSchool101]

Davis moved to IR. We got a whopping 4 punt returns and one kickoff returns out of the guy and in exchange he got $630,000. I think his time in the NFL has just about expired. Looking forward to identifying a competent returner next year.

You might be surprised that I called for a KR in the draft a few years ago in the later rounds (If memory serves me it was live in the this sites Shoutbox? I’m a member of several forums so don’t hold me to that) To my own surprise, later that round Abbredaris name was called up and while he was listed as a WR, it was immediately obvious he would compete for the return specialist role (even though he wouldn’t last long at the professional level). While he is not specifically a punt returner (and I’m not necessarily anti-Davis), I wanted to point out we both obvious value a quality return guy. It’s an important part of the game to say the least. I respect you want to improve the position regardless of our difference of opinion. We can’t leave one stone unturned this offseason IMO. Field position is paramount and having a guy you have to kick away from creates problems for our opponent.
I’m certainly not opposed to going after a pure return specialist/ST ace with a 3rd day pick if one presents itself.
I’ll point out that I’ve seen several posters in here disparaging Davis due to his size. I’m not sure if they understand that some of the most prolific return specialists have been on this side of 5’11 and 195lbs. Desmond Howard is just one example of this.

 

[mongoosev]

this guy is a bust! at least we might get to see kumerow since davis is on the IR AGAIN!

 

[Deleted member 6794]

You might be surprised that I called for a KR in the draft a few years ago in the later rounds (If memory serves me it was live in the this sites Shoutbox?

There's no doubt having a decent returner is important. Yet there were several posters on this forum ignoring the Packers need for it this offseason proclaiming that everyone could handle the job.

 

[Mondio]

There's no doubt having a decent returner is important. Yet there were several posters on this forum ignoring the Packers need for it this offseason proclaiming that everyone could handle the job.

That's not the exact truth. Some were saying someone that can cleanly field a punt would be enough to let Davis go if the rookies all earned WR spots because Davis doesn't offer anything in that regard. Couple that with his poor decision making back there, just a clean fielding of the punt would probably be a push. Better on some, worse on others. I see big name players like Kamara doing these things all the time and have no problem with GB using any available body back there that can get the job done.

In Davis's short return to action he had a nice return nulified by penalty again and then left 10-20 yards on the field by fair catching with nobody around him. that averages out to, BFD if he's back there or not. I full expect him to be replaced next year again by anyone that can make decent decisions and field a punt.

 

[OldSchool101]

full expect him to be replaced next year again by anyone that can make decent decisions and field a punt.

Maybe we should try out Kareem Hunt? His initial burst and punch is practically criminal!

 

[Mondio]

Maybe we should try out Kareem Hunt? He apparently packs quite a punch!

Probably more of a kicking candidate, though leg strength is questionable.

 

[firstdown]

You guys really want to cut Davis? Hahaha. You're nuts.

He was rated the best punt returner in the league last year, and the 2nd best all-around returner in the league last year. He saved McCarthy's job last year with his remarkable 65 yard return against Cleveland, when McCarthy went for the block and left only two blockers for Davis, and Davis still pulled it off. If he could have played this year, he would have saved McCarthy's job again, as he would have made at least a 2 game swing in our record, since we had so many close games.

Davis makes a huge difference in special teams, by winning field advantage with his returns, and with his tackles as gunner. He only had two kickoff returns in Seattle, and busted one of them for 55 yards. Had a solo tackle at the 10 yard line or so. He has a career NFL punt return average of double what we averaged this year with the replacement punt returners. Last year, Davis had no muffs and no fumbles.

As far as him being injury prone, that's not true. Look up his record, he's almost never been injured. His hamstring is completely on our trainers. Trainers are stupid, and they have receivers do heavy leg workouts right before they go out to practice and run miles at full speed. And Davis runs a lot more than the other receivers during practices. In the special team section of practice, all the other receivers get to rest, while Davis returns punts, then kickoffs, then runs as the gunner during coverage.

Hamstrings should never be pulled. The hamstring pulls off the bone because it won't stretch when the receiver is running, because it's tight from strengthening workouts. All you gotta do is stretch before and after workouts. Seems simple, doesn't it? Why won't the trainers do that?

As far as the punt where it looked like he had some room against Seattle, so what if he fair caught it. The wind was blowing, the ball was blowing around and he probably couldn't take his eye off it to look downfield. He caught his first punt with a guy pretty close, and made 12 yards out of nothing, that was impressive, since he has only seen live action once this year and he had to have been very rusty. Against Seattle, he had only two kick returns, and averaged 37.5 yards. 3 punt returns, averaged 10.3 yards. No muffs, no fumbles. Rusty, not in game shape, and he's still literally twice as good as our other returners. And you guys want to cut him?

I started watching Davis at Cal (I'm a Cal grad), and I've always been surprised a how little respect he gets for his talents. Very little respect in college, and now very little in the pros. An interesting stat I found on him (through a GB reporter posting), was that in his senior year in college he lead all power five conference receivers in yards after the catch, with 9.3 per, a full 10% better than the next guy.

I don't understand at all how no one realizes how valuable Davis is to the team. At 700k or so next year, he's a bargain for us, no way GB is getting rid of him. Hopefully, the new coach will bring in some competent trainers, and also a real receiver's coach who has coached receivers before. That would be a nice start.