Carlton Davis recalls lessons learned while playing with Tom Brady
Recent New England Patriots signing Carlton Davis becomes one of the few players to join the Patriots after playing with Tom Brady in Tampa. Davis spoke about what he learned from Brady during his introductory press conference on Thursday.
The number of remaining New England Patriots players who were teammates with Tom Brady is quickly dwindling. Three such players left the roster within about a 12-hour span this week with Jonathan Jones and Deatrich Wise signing with the Washington Commanders in free agency on Wednesday night, and then David Andrews’ release on Thursday morning.
That leaves the Patriots with two players left on the roster who were with the team during Brady’s tenure in New England – linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley and long snapper Joe Cardona. However the team actually added a third former Brady teammate in free agency.
Cornerback Carlton Davis signed with the Patriots earlier this week after spending last season with the Detroit Lions. Prior to that though he spent his first six seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, overlapping with Brady for three seasons including a Super Bowl win in 2020. During his introductory press conference in New England on Thursday, Davis reflected on his time with Brady in Tampa.
“Tom’s a great guy. I was just telling somebody earlier today that I learned so much from him, and I didn’t even have too many conversations with him,” Davis recalled. “Just how he carried himself, how he went about the game.”
“He impacted us on the field and off the field in Tampa, just from not just how serious he took practice and how focused he was but also how diligent he was in his recovery, everything he did, still continued to be the same guy every day, taking care of his body,” Davis continued. “He would give us little tips on what to do and just how to be a professional and how to be successful in this league and in this game. I’m always thankful for having to share a locker room with him and having to win games and win a championship with him. I learned so much, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity.”
Davis also recalled his first (and to this point only) time playing at Gillette Stadium, when the Bucs visited in Brady’s ‘return’ in 2021.
“The environment was electric,” Davis said. “I had never played here and I didn’t know how it would be coming here, but it was like really vibrant. Everybody was just — obviously Tom is coming back, so why wouldn’t it be? But it definitely impressed me. The crowd was so into it and it was like, the lights just seemed a little bit brighter. I don’t know why that day, but they seemed a little bit brighter. But I was impressed. The crowd was really into it. You could feel the love of the football and the city.”
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With Gillette Stadium now his home field, Davis will try to help the Patriots bring that football atmosphere back to Foxborough. Head coach Mike Vrabel shared a bit of what Davis’ role might be in that regard on Thursday, when asked about the pairing of Davis and fellow boundary cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
“Hopefully we can just play cat coverage – like ‘I got this cat, you got this cat’ and we can go to work,” Vrabel said. “I would say the bring I appreciate about watching CD is they may catch a ball on him and he just lines back up and he competes and he challenges and he tries to play aggressive, and there’s a play style that we embrace.”
That could be a sign that the Patriots plan to stay aggressive in man coverage under Vrabel, capitalizing on their two high-level man corners. Gonzalez and Davis were two of the best man coverage corners in the NFL last year, with Davis ranking fourth in the NFL in completion percentage against in man coverage last year at 45.2% according to Next Gen Stats.
