{"id":38408,"date":"2018-02-26T21:12:17","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T02:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=38408"},"modified":"2018-02-26T21:12:17","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T02:12:17","slug":"buffalo-bills-sign-cornerback-vontae-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2018\/02\/26\/buffalo-bills-sign-cornerback-vontae-davis\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Bills to Sign Cornerback Vontae Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DaviVo99.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vontae Davis<\/a><\/strong> will play the 2018 NFL season in Western New York.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran cornerback came to an agreement with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/bills\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buffalo Bills<\/a> on a one-year deal Monday. This comes after he met with Buffalo as well as four other teams over the past 10 days. Davis chose the Bills over the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/49ers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Francisco 49ers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/browns\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cleveland Browns<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/dolphins\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miami Dolphins<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/raiders\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Raiders<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Vontae Davis has picked his location. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ITOyF1mQJl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/ITOyF1mQJl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet\/status\/968280581032300549?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 27, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1><strong>Buffalo Bills to Sign Cornerback Vontae Davis<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Normally, impending free agents must wait until the start of the new league year to consummate new contracts. But Davis is an exception since his previous team, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/colts\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Indianapolis Colts<\/a>, released him midseason in 2017. After opting to undergo season-ending groin surgery in November, the Colts decided to part ways.<\/p>\n<p>That injury primarily contributed to one of his least effective years as a pro. Davis started only five games, registering 16 tackles and two pass breakups. He also failed to come up with an interception for the first time in his nine-year career.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo is hoping that a healthy Davis can recapture the form that made him one of the league&#8217;s top lockdown corners. During his six seasons in Indy, the 29-year-old tallied 13 interceptions and made the Pro Bowl twice. One of those seasons, in 2014, saw him lead the NFL with 27 passes defended.<\/p>\n<p>Signing Davis brings a modicum of certainty to the position with three Bills corners, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GainE.00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">E.J. Gaines<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/J\/JohnLe03.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Leonard Johnson<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WrigSh00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shareece Wright<\/a><\/strong>, hitting the open market at the onset of free agency. Gaines <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2017\/08\/11\/los-angeles-rams-traded-sammy-watkins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">came in the trade<\/a> that sent <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WatkSa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sammy Watkins<\/a><\/strong> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/rams\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Rams<\/a> while Johnson and Wright signed one-year deals with the team last off-season.<\/p>\n<p>Davis spent his first three seasons in the league with the Miami Dolphins. The team drafted him 25th overall in the 2009 NFL Draft after a standout career at Illinois where he made first-team All-Big Ten twice. He made an immediate impact, picking off four passes as a rookie and doing so once more in 2011.<\/p>\n<h2>What the Davis Addition Means for the Bills Secondary<\/h2>\n<p>Among the Bills&#8217; biggest strengths during <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/McDeSe20.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sean McDermott<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s first season as head coach was its secondary. <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2017\/03\/18\/tredavious-white\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Tre&#8217;Davious White<\/strong><\/a> had one of the most impressive seasons from a rookie in the entire league. It showed in the fact that Pro Football Focus gave him the second highest grade among all league corners. And their tandem of safeties, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/H\/HydeMi00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Micah Hyde<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/P\/PoyeJo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Poyer<\/a><\/strong>, proved to be enormously valuable free agent signings in 2017. The hope is that despite his age and recent injury history, Davis can do the same this coming season.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"i8RZQDRKQtNBbCOnkfQ_TA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/866890580\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'i8RZQDRKQtNBbCOnkfQ_TA',sig:'DQ3BoSYbsuo5hNa91k_FKYIedg-s3jmBDN7e_EedSjY=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'866890580',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Buffalo Bills announced on Monday night that they came to terms with veteran cornerback Vontae Davis on a one-year contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":38412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,36],"tags":[177,61,56,40,448],"class_list":["post-38408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bills","category-nfl-news","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-football","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-nfl","tag-vontae-davis"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}