The Pittsburgh Steelers continued to address their secondary in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft on Friday with the selection of Maryland defensive back Sean Davis. After the pick was made, Steelers defensive backs coach Carnell Lake addressed the media to talk about his newest player.
“Really a very productive player at two positions, safety and corner,” said Lake of Davis, who had over 300 total tackles during his college career. “He has been very productive in the tackling department and has a good eye for playing the ball in the passing game and we really look forward to having him in the building. He’s going to provide us with a lot of versatility and depth at a needed position at safety for us, that’s where we plan to play him and I think he’ll do an outstanding job there.”
Lake was asked if Davis is better suited to play strong or free safety and the Steelers defensive backs coach said that while he will start off being used as a strong safety, he will eventually be asked to play both positions.
“Right now, primarily, we should plug him in at strong safety as Mike Mitchell’s primarily our free safety, said Lake. “That’s where we’ll start and I’m assuming that he’ll wind up playing both positions at some point.”
Lake was later asked about Davis’ cover skills.
“His cover skills, in my opinion, are very good,” said Lake. “He’s had a lot of experience not only covering slots and tight ends at safety, but he also played a year at corner which gives him even more experience. You take a player like that who last year played corner that’s going to move in inside to play safety, the game will slow down quite a bit for him inside.”
Davis, who started 40 games at Maryland, recorded 318 total tackles and 5 interceptions in addition to 6 forced fumbles. Lake said that Davis had 36 special teams tackles and that he didn’t take that job lightly. Davis led all defensive backs at the combine with 21 reps on the bench and 126-inch broad jump.
