Prior to the draft, the tight end position is one that I almost expected the Green Bay Packers to address at some point over the three days. The main reason being that, as of now, Josiah Deguara is the only tight end under contract in 2023 and beyond–and as we all know, the draft is about planning ahead.
However, that isn’t how things played out. Of course, a big contributing factor to that is likely how the board fell. The Packers simply may have never had the opportunity to select the tight they wanted where the value matched. Another reason could be because of Tyler Davis–yes, Tyler Davis.
Following the draft, Brian Gutekunst was asked about not adding to the tight end position and had this to say:
“TD — Tyler Davis — we picked up early in the year, and as his opportunities grew not only in the games but in practice, think we really have something there. So I’m excited about that.”
Davis was a 2020 sixth-round pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars after spending three years at UCONN and his final season at Georgia Tech. During his college career, he was targeted 98 times, catching 65% of those attempts at 10.0 yards per catch with eight touchdowns. He spent 41% of his career snaps lined up in-line and 39% from the slot, according to PFF.
Last season, Green Bay signed Davis, who had just 40 career NFL snaps, off the Indianapolis practice squad, and he saw his role begin to increase towards the end of the season with Robert Tonyan sidelined and the Packers looking for more steady production at tight end.
Davis was on the field for 132 total offensive snaps in 2021, with 99 of them coming after Week 14, including a season-high 32 snaps against Minnesota and 11 in the playoff game against San Francisco.
Davis is a willing and high-effort blocker, which we know is an important element to earning more snaps in Matt LaFleur’s offense. For what it’s worth, he finished the season ranked 17th among all tight ends in PFFs run-blocking grade.
As a pass-catcher, Davis caught four of his five targets for 35 yards, including a 22-yard reception up the seam against Baltimore. Aaron Rodgers was under pressure and held on to the ball as long as he could before finding Davis, who had a few defenders around him. It may be easy to brush this play off, but it does illustrate that there is at least some level of confidence that Rodgers has in the young tight end.
Mepham’s Tyler Davis with a 22 yard reception for the Packers today. pic.twitter.com/xnYtqoP99r
— BMBroadcasting (@BM_Broadcasting) December 19, 2021
Davis also finished the season ranked fifth on the team in total special teams snaps and sixth in tackles, so we may continue to see him quite a bit in that role as well.
Now, of course, these are all small sample sizes, but in addition to the game film, LaFleur and Co. see Davis every day in practice which is also going to be a key contributor at this point to the confidence that the team has in him.
Davis certainly isn’t the sole reason that the Green Bay Packers didn’t select a tight end in this year’s draft. Even if he does contribute, tight end will still be a need in 2023, and Davis is still going to have to earn his playing time over the summer–not to mention once Tonyan returns and the tight end room gets a little bit crowded.
But every year, there are players who seemingly come out of nowhere and take on much larger roles than expected. This season that player could be Tyler Davis, who brings a well-rounded skill-set to the tight end position.
Read More: Packers Think They “Really Have Something” in Tyler Davis