Carlton Davis insists game against former team is not personal for him

In search of a No.1 cornerback, the Detroit Lions made a trade with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Carlton Davis in March. In the locker room after Wednesday's practice, Davis was of course asked repeatedly asked about facing his former team from all different tentacles of it.

In terms of finding out he was traded, when Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht called him, Davis had an expected initial reaction ("what the f**ck?"). It would be human for him to have a little extra motivation going against the team he spent the first six years of his career with, especially so early in the season with a significant scheduling quirk.

But as expected when he was asked, via SI.com, Davis is setting aside the personal side of facing the Buccaneers this week.

"It’s not personal for me, at all. I could never get personal with these type of games, because it’s all business. They’re just the next opponent in our way and it’s a long journey," Davis said. "Like I said, it’s a business. I do have a lot of love for those guys over there, but on Sunday it’s football, man. There’s no friends on the field, and there won’t be on Sunday.” 

Carlton Davis insists facing the Buccaneers is not personal for him

When asked essentially the same question different ways about facing the Buccaneers, Davis pushed away the idea there's any extra layer for him.

"Honestly, this isn't something I'm circling, this isn't something that's like personal for me. It's moreso business," Davis said. "I moreso want to win this game for the 2024 Detroit Lions than I am trying to get payback or anything like that. I'm not bitter or anything like that, I'm just happy I'm here."

Davis is never going to say anything other than what he said publicly about facing his former team this week. He has unique insight into Buccaneers wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin though, and Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn acknowledged tapping into that familiarity when he met with the media on Thursday (h/t to team reporter Dannie Rogers).

"Aaron Glenn says DB Carlton Davis who spent the last 6 years in Tampa Bay gave the best introduction to the receivers in the defensive meeting yesterday that he's ever heard from a player.. Was so articulate with it. . . and says Davis who's really quiet has a little something in him this week.. won't show it, but there's a chip there for his former team."

So in the meeting room on Wednesday, Glenn noticed a little something extra out of Davis. There's nothing wrong with that, at all, even if Davis won't provide public fodder for a revenge game angle.