Preparing for his first season as the New England coach, Mike Vrabel likes the pairing of cornerbacks Carlton Davis and Christian Gonzalez the Patriots will deploy in their secondary.
“Hopefully, we can just play cat coverage,” Vrabel said. “You got that cat, I got this cat, and we can go to work.”
A 2023 first-round draft choice, Gonzalez earned second-team All-Pro recognition in 2024. Davis joined New England as a free agent this month for a three-year, $54 million contract that included a $16.5 million signing bonus, $34.5 million in guaranteed money and $6 million in earnable incentives.
Davis considers Gonzalez “a young, great player.”
“Of course, it excites me, especially, like, being able to go and play with Gonzo, a guy who I know can hold his own and has shown it in previous years,” Davis said. “And you know, when you can play that type of football, especially for a defense, it allows somebody to rush the passer a little bit more efficiently. And then, you know, it also puts pressure on a quarterback because you’re playing tight coverage and now he’s not just picking you off in the zone. And when you need to play man-to-man, you can play it. I’ve been on teams where we play man-to-man 80 percent of the snaps, and that’s the more efficient way to get the offense off the field and get three-and-outs quickly. And now you’re putting your offense back on the field, and (the quarterback) is getting more chances and we’re just giving him more chances to get in the end zone.”
A second-round draft choice from Auburn in 2018, Davis spent his first six seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs traded Davis to the Detroit Lions last offseason. He held opposing quarterbacks to a 77.0 passing-efficiency rating when throwing against him before a broken jaw sustained in the 13th game sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
“I would say the thing I appreciate from watching CD,” Vrabel said, “is that they may catch a ball on him and he just lines back up and he competes and he challenges and he tries to play aggressive, and that’s a play style that we embrace. Corner, it’s a tough position in the National Football League, and so they’re going to have passes that are caught on them. It’s: Can they line back up on the next snap and challenge and compete and get their hand on the next football? And that would be, I would say, outside of his physical skill set is the mental makeup.”
Davis’ calling card has been his press coverage, where his long arms help him jam receivers at the line of scrimmage.
“I do love to be physical,” Davis said. “I do love to instill fear and kind of be a bully out there. If I’m being quite honest, I like to have that intimidation factor knowing that they watched the film from last week and they’ve been watching the film, and in their meetings, their coaches were talking about ‘This guy is a bully, and this guy’s going to press you, and this guy is going to close space on you.’ And you can tell. Like, you get out there, you can just look at a receiver, and he’s up. His coach told him because he’s a little nervous. He’s a little, you know, just antsy about what’s about to happen. And he knows you’re going to press him and you’re not going to give him too much space.”
New England has had three consecutive losing seasons, including back-to-back 4-13 showings. Before this span, the Patriots hadn’t had three consecutive losing campaigns since a five-year slide from 1989 through 1993.
New England has signed 12 free agents since the NFL’s 2025 business year started on March 12. Eliot Wolf, the Patriots’ player-personnel director, said adding Davis was a personal goal.
“I was in Cleveland when CD came out in the draft,” Wolf said. “I tried really, really hard to get us to pick him and got vetoed on that one. But ever since then I’ve followed his career. When he’s been available, every time we’re tried to get him. And now we were finally able to make that happen, so I’m excited about that.”
Davis said leaving Detroit was “tough.” The Lions have played in the past two NFC Championship games.
“It’s always good to be wanted in this league,” Davis said, “and part of the decision of me coming here was them prioritizing me and being able to get me here.”
Davis chose to come to New England even though in his only game at Gillette Stadium – Tampa Bay’s 19-17 victory over the Patriots on Oct. 3, 2021 – he suffered a torn quadriceps muscle and missed the next seven contests.
Davis said he hoped to “do something historical in a historical place.”
“The ability to be able to come somewhere and build something and come somewhere and start a legacy was big for me,” Davis said. “… I understand the opportunity here. I understand it’s a rebuild. I understand there’s great coaches here. Detroit has a great thing going, but I feel like we can have a great thing going here.”
