This is Green Bay Packers’ rookie receiver Trevor Davis’ line on the season: three catches, 24 yards, one touchdown. All three of those receptions came against Atlanta and Davis has only been targeted seven times all season.
Most of us would say that’s to be expected.
Rarely does a rookie receiver — especially one taken in the fifth round, as Davis was — make much of an impact in his first season.
Where Davis was making an impact was as a returner, specifically as a punt returner. Davis is averaging 12.8 per return and owns the Packers’ longest punt return of the season at 55 yards.
Unfortunately, Trevor Davis now finds himself in Mike McCarthy’s doghouse.
Davis was replaced by Randall Cobb three weeks ago as the Packers’ punt returner. He has only returned three kicks on the season and all of those came in week 9 vs. the Colts. Davis hasn’t been targeted since week 10 in Tennessee.
It gets worse.
Maybe this came as a surprise to only me, but Davis was one of the Packers’ inactives when Houston came to town. Unlike several other guys on that inactive list, Davis was actually healthy.
Not only has Davis’ touches been reduced, he now has no guarantees that he’ll even suit up on game day.
Why has Davis fallen into disregard?
It appears his fumble of a punt against Tennessee put him in McCarthy’s doghouse. Active or not, Davis hasn’t played a snap in the past three weeks.
Is McCarthy sending a message about preparedness and accountability?
Maybe.
He tried to send one by benching Eddie Lacy and then calling him fat, last season. This is slightly different, though.
There have been no public proclamations and Davis is a rookie. The inactive list isn’t a strange place to find a rookie.
Whatever it may be, barring injury, we may have seen the last of Trevor Davis this season.
6 Comments
Just a classic mike mccarthy shoot yourself in the leg move. No more, no less. But as weve seen with janis, once you enrage the buffoon, youre not going to see any playtime.
Id almost bet his gb career is over. Mccarthy is more than willing to swallow teds load, but never his own pride.
Janis has gotten increased playtime and done exactly shit with it. By now it’s obvious that he’s just missing something. You don’t have his gifts and build and not play because someone is butthurt. If anything, mccarthy would play the hell out of him and they’d trade him.
Janis doesn’t have it yet.
There have been players who im sure enraged him plenty who still played. Do you think he liked listening to Jmike bitch all. the. fucking. time? Finally he started to hold on to balls and miraculously he started to get better stats. Uncanny, right?
Commission of a single turnover by rookies leads directly to the doghouse. Poor performance without a turnover by a veteran (James Starks) still holds down a starting role. Maybe it is time to evaluate admission and release criteria to the doghouse.
McCarthy is in my dog house. He fumbles game management, player talent evaluation, situational football, player motivation, play calling, and general coaching competence. He does not however fumble any twinkies or other types of cake based products.
MM is all about finding scapegoats and then taking matters out on them. It vents his frustration but it also serves a practical purpose as per keeping his coaching job.
This is classic executive stuff — there are 2 kinds of unsuccessful executives: One is unsuccessful and does nothing to avert blame or, God forbid, even accepts blame, and is soon replaced. The other is unsuccessful but busily and nearly continuously throws underlings under the bus so as to appear to have continually and constantly “fixed” the alleged problem. The second kind of unsuccessful executive has a much much longer career. They will hurt anyone to any degree if it provides a smidgen of chance of possibly aiding them. That is classic sociopath.
I ask you: Is there one player, even just one, who genuinely likes McCarthy? No. Not one. Because they know. He is not a leader. He serves only himself. Who can be loyal to that?
Now, I am not saying Trevor Davis really belongs on the field. He would have been a fair to middling undrafted free agent. But a 5th round draft pick? What a joke. That is on TT.
Davis at this point in his profession is not there. First in order to be a viable receiver he needs to put some meat on those bones. His lack of strength hurts Davis as a receiver, and being on any of the special team units except returning punts or kickoffs. The problem with Davis as a punt returner is he is a rookie. You are not given much leeway when muffing punts. In addition Davis was sulking on the sideline over the muff. To me I was suprised the team even let a rookie field punts and I said so early in the season. As the weather gets worse it was more likely that a veteran would field punts over a rookie.
I don’t think Davis is in anyone’s doghouse. Davis just needs to get stronger and more detailed at his profession.It is not uncommon for the Packers, right or wrong, to let a rookie play then have him sit for a few games while correcting errors in technique. The bottom line is would you rather have a rookie fielding punts in bad weather or Cobb or Hyde who have done it before. As far as receiver goes it is hard to find another receiver to take off the field for Davis. Davis offers nothing on any of the special teams unit except maybe returner. That makes for a player that doesn’t put on pads on game day.