Easy to see why Davis could be a Bolt
Chris Davis gets your attention initially because he made a play in college that was instantly iconic.
Davis keeps your attention by being fast and physical and, more often than not, in the right places at the right times.
Davis captures your heart when you find out he graduated college in 3½ years, doing so while helping raise a four-year-old son on whom, it is widely recognized, he dotes.
You want an underdog to root for in Chargers training camp, this cornerback out of Auburn is your guy.
When a young man’s life says something good about what it is possible for a person to achieve without him having to say much of anything, you can embrace that. You want to embrace that.
“The environment I grew up around, you know, I just wanted to be better,” Davis said. “I went to college, got an education and managed to be successful in football.”
We don’t have the space here to talk about all that “environment” entails, like the upbringing in the projects without the father who was murdered when Davis was two years old.
But if you can just grasp how difficult it is to get a college degree while playing football in the SEC, let alone doing it while raising a toddler and maintaining a relationship with the child’s mother, then you can appreciate Davis will do all he can to make it in the NFL despite being undrafted and playing a position at which the Chargers are suddenly replete.
After going undrafted – “To be honest, I shed a couple of tears,” he said -- Davis and his agent identified the Chargers as one of the rosters he could crack. The Chargers had been among the league’s worst secondaries in 2013 and looked to be a cornerback short going forward.
Davis signed here and participated in offseason workouts, only to have the Chargers sign Pro Bowl cornerback Brandon Flowers in late June.
Davis laughed Monday when the transaction was brought up. He knows why Flowers was signed, and he knows what it means for him.
“Mmmhmmm,” he said. “I’m just trying to make the coaches make a tough decision. That’s all I can control . . . They’ve got one goal. That is to try to win the Super Bowl. I’m going to try to help accomplish that goal if I can.”
The reality is that no part of Davis’ compelling story will matter if he doesn’t have enough to offer on the field.
He wasn’t drafted, in part, because teams weren’t all that thrilled with how he moves. There were also concerns about the ankle injury that hobbled him for part of his senior season.
Davis was slowed some in the Chargers’ spring workouts due to a hamstring injury. But he’s healthy now, and on the second day of camp ran down rookie receiver Tevin Reese, believed to be the fastest player on the roster. The next day, he jammed Reese at the start of a route and then got in front of him to intercept a pass in a one-on-one drill.
Davis has yet to rise above the third team defense through five days of camp, no higher than seventh on a list of cornerbacks that will be no longer than five names when the season starts. He’s looking like he could perhaps make the Chargers’ practice squad.
But, then, there remains more than a month before the final cuts. And Davis is exactly the kind of player who can turn a preseason game into a showcase.
He knows his real chance is to make an impression on special teams.
Remember, this is the kid who in November returned a missed field goal 109 yards as time ran out to give Auburn a victory over Alabama.
“I try to show people that there is more to Chris Davis than just that one big play,” he said, “that Chris Davis is an awesome defensive back, who loves to make plays all over the field.”
It’s easy to hope he gets that chance.
