Have you seen this movie before? We have. Saw it back in training camp in 2012. Davon House was killing it and clearly establishing himself as the frontrunner for the Green Bay Packers No. 2 cornerback job.
Then he injured his shoulder in a preseason game at San Diego, lost the No. 2 job to Sam Shields and missed six games. And he’s been a backup ever since.
House actually played all 16 games in 2013, but he was behind both Casey Hayward and Micah Hyde on the depth chart. Hayward’s injury — he played in just three games — is the biggest reason House played as much as he did. That’s not to say he was bad, but he certainly wasn’t great.
Now Hayward is back and Hyde is playing safety. Shields and Tramon Williams are still entrenched as the top two cornerbacks.
Where does that leave House?
No one really knows. We suggested the Packers would end up trading House simply because they have too many good cornerbacks.
They may still end up doing that, but House is certainly doing everything in his power to stick around (and get on the field). He’s at least playing at the level he was back in 2012. A higher level, if you believe Mike McCarthy, who says House is having his best year as a pro.
That stands to reason. Most guys — fat ass B.J. Raji being the obvious exception — play their best football when they’re in a contract year, as House is now.
Unfortunately for House, the payoff won’t be quite as great as in Green Bay as it would be elsewhere though. Barring injuries, it’s unlikely House will be anything more than the Packers dime cornerback this year.
If the Packers don’t re-sign Tramon Williams next year — and we’re assuming they won’t — House still isn’t in line to start. He’s the nickel back behind Shields and Hayward.
So he’ll probably end up playing someplace where there’s a starting spot open for him.
This year, however, the Packers will have a really, really good dime back.
House is in the house! Stay healthy House!
Of course this is Green Bay, home of the bad hammie so let’s just wait until mid season before we start writing cats off, except Tramon, he will be gone at the end of the season UNLESS he takes a substantial pay cut.
You clearly have no idea.
Yeeeeaaaah…when was the last time Ted Thompson traded a player? Anybody? Bueller?
Exactly..
House is one of those pre-season heros who don’t do anything when the season comes along. Another Vic So’oto. And the Packers have only two good but not great corners, that’s it, they are not flush with good corners. Remember the Packers had the 25th ranked passing defense last year (or something like that) and that was even with teams running the ball because the Packers were always playing from behind with their backup quarterback mess.
If House doesn’t make the team, he can just go back to being a cynical, genius doctor. I love his show.
As I recall from his first year, House is a big hitter. Perhaps if Sean Richardson cracks the lineup as well, we may have some physicality to our secondary, adding these two guys to Hide. Dix will likely be good physical presence, and Hayward and Shields hold their own. We could sure use some big hitters and sure tacklers back there. I predict that Burnett gets replaced by Dix or Richardson fairly quickly into the season. He got his money, now he doesn’t care to tackle or really play at all. Reminds me of Clitoris Hunt.