The Green Bay Packers managed to keep most of their 2021 team intact despite entering the offseason with a tight cap situation. While they lost a few pieces, notably Davante Adams, they’ve brought in an exciting draft class to fill the few positional voids. All in all, the Packers still have one of the best rosters in the NFC.
OTAs and training camp will determine the few available starting spots as we approach the regular season. Tight end is one of the positions with a less-than-defined depth chart. With Robert Tonyan still recovering from a mid-season torn ACL, the Packers will give the venerable Marcedes Lewis and former third-round pick Josiah Deguara the majority of snaps. But don’t count out relative unknown Tyler Davis, who they have brought up, unprompted, multiple times this season.
He is likely still a relative unknown to most of Packers Nation. But Brian Gutekunst, Matt LaFleur, and Rich Bisaccia have all mentioned Davis as a player to watch.
Davis played college ball for three seasons at UConn before transferring to Georgia Tech for his senior year. The Jacksonville Jaguars drafted him in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL Draft, and he played 40 snaps as a rookie. Jacksonville released Davis before the 2021 season and spent time on the Indianapolis Colts’ practice squad until Green Bay signed him to their active roster on Sept. 28. Davis provided depth after Dominique Dafney ended up on IR three days prior.
He only played 121 offensive snaps in his first season with Green Bay, though Davis played a major role on special teams (53.58% of ST snaps). His role started growing later in the season, following Tonyan’s injury. Davis caught four of his five targets for 35 yards. His major highlight was a beautiful 22-yard catch.
Davis is a high-effort blocker, which LaFleur loves in his players. Rodgers wasn’t afraid to throw the ball to him, as shown in his 22-yard catch against the Ravens. We all know how important Rodgers’ trust is in developing new pass-catchers, and Rodgers may already trust Davis more than he trusts Deguara.
While Davis hasn’t popped on the stat sheet, the powers that be in Green Bay are thrilled with his potential.
Tight end was a position of need for the Packers, and they had plenty of chances to take one in the middle rounds of the draft, but Brian Gutekunst chose to focus his resources elsewhere.
Following the draft, he told the media, “TD, we picked up early in the year, and as his opportunities grew, not only in games but in practice, I think we might have something there. So, I’m excited about that.”
Even compared to most rookies, tight ends generally don’t contribute right away because of the difficulty of learning both offensive and blocking schemes. Davis is likely to be involved more than a rookie as he enters his third season.
Davis has a lot in common with Tonyan, who also played a relatively minor role until breaking out in his third season. Both were collegiate cornerbacks who converted to tight end due to their size and athleticism. So not only is Davis learning how to be an NFL tight end, he’s still learning the nuances of the position in general. A year-three jump could be a big boon for Green Bay, and Tonyan and Lewis should make for fantastic role models to learn from.
LaFleur certainly thinks so, singling out Davis on the first day of OTAs.
“He’s a young player that needs to continue to learn and develop and show us what he can do,” LaFleur said. We must contain our expectations for a player with a small sample size, but LaFleur clearly thinks Davis has potential on the offense.
LaFleur also mentioned Davis as a player who special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said he’s excited about following his hiring. There wasn’t much to be excited about from the unit last year, so Davis may be a core player in Bisaccia’s re-imagined unit.
Tonyan opened OTAs on the sideline as he recovers from his ACL injury, and he could start the season on the PUP list. The Packers will give Lewis and Deguara a lot of snaps. LaFleur won’t want to overuse Lewis, though, and there should be plenty of opportunities for multiple tight end sets. Davis has a golden opportunity to carve out roles on offense and special teams as he competes with Dafney and recently signed Alize Mack for playing time.
It’s hard to find a better opening for a young, unknown player to work their way onto the roster than the one Davis has in Green Bay. The scouts and coaching staff believe he has the skills to take advantage, and Gutekunst has proven skilled at providing chances for unknown players to make a name for themselves.
