Due to the Lisfranc injury suffered by Pittsburgh Steelers second-year cornerback Senquez Golson during a training camp practice last week, rookie safety Sean Davis figures to get plenty of opportunities during the next several weeks to show he’s capable of handling the slot cornerback position this year in the team’s sub package defense. Davis, the team’s second-round draft pick this year out of Maryland, has impressed head coach Mike Tomlin so far during training camp when it comes to how he has prepared his body for his rookie season.
“More than anything, he’s highly conditioned,” Tomlin said of Davis Tuesday following the Steelers first of two joint training camp practices against the Detroit Lions. “He’s one of the few rookies that I’ve seen that really kind of looks like he’s come prepared from a conditioning standpoint. So it’s not a knock against the others, it’s really a tip of the cap to him and i think that’s the first place that allows him to grow and take extra reps.”
Davis, who played both cornerback and safety in college, figures to see the most playing time of all the Steelers rookies this year as first-round draft pick, cornerback Artie Burns, appears to need quite a bit more development before he’ll be allowed to contribute on defense. When Golson went down, Davis stepped right in as the first-team nickel cornerback in addition to also seeing time as a safety in the second-team defense.
Friday night the Steelers will play their first preseason game of 2016 against the Lions at Heinz Field and one would think that Davis will see quite a bit of playing time in that contest at multiple defensive positions in addition to perhaps some work on special teams. In other words, expect his conditioning level to be tested quite extensively.
“He’s playing some at strong safety, he’s playing some at a nickel back position in some of our sub packages and I think more than anything, from an assessment standpoint, his high-level of conditioning allows him to get extra work which of course accelerates the learning curve,” Tomlin said.
