When Tampa Bay cornerback Brent Grimes suffered a groin injury in practice two days before the Buccaneers' season-opening game against the New Orleans Saints, rookie Carlton Davis entered the starting lineup, making his debut against quarterback Drew Brees, who's on course to become the NFL's all-time leading passer this season.
Brees passed for 439 yards and three touchdowns, including a 28-yard TD when wide receiver Ted Ginn got behind Davis. But the Buccaneers won the game 48-40 on Sunday.
"It was a learning lesson going against a Hall of Fame quarterback,'' Davis said. "It's part of the game, though. We play in a tough division where there's a lot of good quarterbacks, so it's something that I'll be seeing often, and I think it's kind of good that I got to see it early so it kind of just established what I'm going to be playing against. It gave me a good wake-up call, so I think it was good for me.''
In the fourth quarter against the Saints, Tampa Bay's other starting cornerback, Vernon Hargreaves, suffered a shoulder injury. On Wednesday, the Bucs put Hargreaves on injured reserve with a torn labrum. Friday's injury report showed Grimes won't play either on Sunday, when Tampa Bay takes on the Philadelphia Eagles, the defending Super Bowl champion.
"Every team is going to have (injuries) every week," Tampa Bay coach Dirk Koetter said. "It just means the next guy has to come up and be ready to go. ... The rookies, they'll be playing a bigger role.''
In addition to drafting Davis from Auburn in the second round in April, the Buccaneers also took cornerback M.J. Stewart from North Carolina in the second round.
Against New Orleans, Davis and Stewart made four tackles apiece.
"It doesn't matter who's out there, you have to do your job," Davis said. "Obviously Brent and Vernon are key pieces to our secondary, but what are we going to do about that? You have to have that next-man mentality and be ready to go. We kind of have to expect that going into the season. Guys get hurt all the time, so you've got to have that in the back of your mind. That being said, we prepare every week like we're going to start, so it's not much of a difference."
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Tampa Bay used early picks on Davis and Stewart with the intention of getting them on the field. But the Bucs didn't expect they'd have to throw their rookies into the fire.
"Those young guys that we drafted last year in April, we knew that they were going to have to come in and contribute," Buccaneers defensive coordinator Mike Smith said. "I didn't think it would be Week 1 and Week 2. But they're guys that have a good understanding of what needs to be done in the secondary. They've not really had the type of work that we'd like. They've all missed time in the preseason. We've had to improvise and adjust, but that's part of it.
"They'll remember their first NFL game playing against a Hall of Fame quarterback like Drew Brees. They found out in the NFL it's never over until it's really over."
Rookies usually get asked about the difference between the speed of the NFL game and what they experienced in college. Davis said what he saw in his first NFL regular-season game was different from even his preseason experience.
"It was definitely the speed and the intensity,'' Davis said. "It was way more intense than preseason, and you kind of feel when you're on the field, the urgency is way up.
"You know, with a win it's a lot better. But you know, I know I've got to play better, especially being in this division, and if I want to accomplish my goals, I've got to get better and learn every day.''
Davis figures he's not going to face a better quarterback than Brees, though.
"You know, going up against him the first game, it kind of established like, OK, it can get bad, you got to prepare for the worst every game," Davis said. "I'm going to be preparing like I'm playing Drew Brees every game. It was kind of a good thing for me and a good lesson."
The Bucs and Eagles are scheduled to kick off at noon CDT Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.
from Auburn Sports Impact http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2018/09/rookie_carlton_davis_becomes_p.html
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