ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Two full practices into training camp and already Denver Broncos’ inside linebacker Todd Davis is way ahead of last year.
Davis didn’t make it out of the Broncos’ first camp workout without tearing a calf muscle on July 18, 2019. Initially expected to be out three or four weeks, he wound up missing the entire preseason and first two games of the regular season.
He still led the team in tackles for the third time in four years with a career-most 134.
Not that the veteran Davis wanted to miss a second consecutive camp.
> Above video: A look at the Broncos' 2020 Training Camp.
“I think camp is very important to me,’’ Davis said Sunday in a Zoom video conference call with members of the Denver media. “I think last year, because I didn’t have camp, it took me two or three games into the regular season to get back to where I was moving 100 percent, feeling 100 percent, on my keys and really executing.
“Now I have training camp to put me in that mode so by the first game I’m ready to go. This training camp I am wholly locked in and focused and I’m going to be healthy the whole way through.”
Davis, 28, is a classic overachiever. He played his college ball at Sacramento State, which is a level down from NCAA Division I programs. Undrafted, he was cut four times by the New Orleans Saints in his rookie season of 2014 before the Broncos claimed him off waivers in mid-November of that year. He was used primarily to help out on Joe DeCamillis' special teams for their final six games and playoff loss to Indianapolis.
By 2016, he was a starter and he has made it to the final year of his three-year, $15 million contract extension.
The Broncos have occasionally thought about replacing him – they considered Devon Bush and Patrick Queen in the past two drafts and free agent Christian Kirksey in March – before concluding Davis is plenty good enough.
“That’s been in the noise probably the last couple years,’’ Davis said. “I’ve kind of tuned it out now. I don’t really listen to it. Whatever they want to do that’s what they’re going to do.
“Year after year they continue to keep me here. I feel like they have faith in me. It’s my job to go out there and perform right, and I’m going to continue to do that.”
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