Cleveland Browns add Davion Davis to practice squad

Davion Davis Human Highlight Reel at Sam Houston State

Davis played four seasons for the Sam Houston State University Bearkats, who compete in the Western Athletic Conference, an FCS NCAA Division I Conference. His best season was his junior year (his senior season was cut short due to injury, although he was first-team All-SLC as a senior).

According to the Bearkats Website, in 14 games, Davis had 1,206 receiving yards, 21 total touchdowns, and 1,720 all-purpose yards. He was the SLC Offensive Player of the Year, All-SLC first team wide receiver, All-SLC first team all-purpose player, All-SLC first team punt returner, AP All-America first team, AFCA all-America first team, and probably a dozen other awards.

Sam Houston State is an awesome university, but from a football standpoint it’s an FCS university.  In the case of Hollywood Higgins, he was also knocked for being from a school outside the Power Five, although the Mountain West Conference is still Division I FBS.

Nevertheless, the receiving talent is obvious from watching video. Here is one that would make Odell Beckham, Jr. proud.

You are invited to search YouTube for other highlights. There are a number of them! What the videos prove is that he can catch footballs and outfight the defender.

What is more difficult to evaluate is whether he can run the precise patterns that are needed to succeed in the NFL. Can he get to the right spot at the right time to make the play?

Davis was suspended for two weeks due to a driving under the influence charge Davis got while he was with the Minnesota Vikings in 2019. According to WKYC-3, he actually pled guilty to reckless driving rather than driving under the influence, but nevertheless, a suspension was called for under the NFL substance abuse policy.

It would have been dealt with earlier, but because Davis was out of the league, it never came up until he signed with the Browns this summer.

We don’t want to make light of the issue with alcohol, but it has been two years, not an event that occurred while he was employed with the Browns. This is a warning sign, but nothing that should preclude employment with the team.

It was a bit of a surprise that Davis slipped through waivers, but as mentioned, his performance in game three was not as impressive as game one. It may be over-analyzing, but with his talent, it would be really great to make a few more one-handed, OBJ-style catches to impress the coaches, but the opportunities were not really there.

As a result, he made some attempts to catch the ball one-handed that would have been better attempted with both hands. Be sure, Mr. Davis. Sure-handed trumps flash every time.