Thomas Davis, one of the most popular Carolina Panthers of all time and called “The Mayor Of Charlotte” by Cam Newton, he has certainly earned that nickname over a 13-year career that has seen three ACL surgeries and a Super Bowl appearance two weeks after suffering a broken arm. After being voted to the Pro Bowl the past two seasons, Davis made it clear that he was interested in signing a contract extension, which he agreed to on August 15 that ensured he would retire a Carolina Panther.
Davis has had over 100 tackles in each of the past five seasons, and appears to be on pace to eclipse that number again with 69 combined tackles with four games left on the schedule. However, he will be the first to tell you that he did not play well last week during the Panthers 31-21 loss last week in which he was nursing a tweaked hamstring and only picked up one tackle. He spoke with the media on Friday about how disappointed he was with his play in New Orleans, whether he’ll be on a pitch count this week against Minnesota, and who is going to step up as fellow linebacker Shaq Thompson misses the game with plantar fascitis.
Your thoughts on the [Falcons/Saints] game last night and what that means, if anything, for where you guys stand.
I think that game last night just kind of keeps the door open a little bit for us moving forward to win the NFC South. Had the Saints won that game, it would have been a lot harder moving forward, but we still have an opportunity. A small one, but we have one.
How’s your hamstring this week and do you expect to be on a pitch count?
A lot better. I definitely don’t think I’ll be on a pitch count unless there’s a setback. But right now, I’m doing really well.
Frustrating last week-
Absolutely.
How critical will your presence be in a game like this with the Vikings trying to control the clock?
Hopefully, it will be very critical. Definitely can’t go out and play like I did last week, though; I know that’s for sure. It’s one of those situations where you’ve just got to line up and you’ve got to be ready to go and I feel like I’m ready to go for sure this week.
With Shaq out, how does that change the complexion of what you guys are going to do?
Shaq is a dynamic player, you know, he offered a lot to this defense and not having him up this week is definitely going to be something different for us, but we’ll make adjustments and we’ve got guys that we feel like are very capable of getting the job done and we’re going to go with them.
With the cold weather, will that be harder for you to get warmed up with that hamstring?
Nah, I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I know the proper measures to take to make sure that I’m ready to go. I don’t think the weather is going to be an issue for me.
Does no Shaq mean more reps for Captain [Munnerlyn], David [Mayo] or Ben [Jacobs]?
We’re going to utilize all of our guys. Captain’s definitely going to get a lot more reps; I think Mayo is going to see a lot more action, so it’s going to be a situation where we’re going to utilize guys that we know that are capable of getting the job done.
Most folks outside of the building have kind of slotted you already as a wild card, it sounds like you are not going to settle for that at this point.
The race, it ain’t over ’til it’s over. The games still got to be played and we still have an opportunity to control what we can control and that’s the mindset of this football team. Obviously, we can’t control anything else that goes on outside of this building, but we have a say-so on what we do.
Your thoughts on the [University of] Georgia game?
We’re in the playoffs, I’m excited. We have an opportunity there and there are only three other teams that can say that they have a chance to win the National Championship and I’m glad my Bulldogs are one of them.
But you’d rather be in a position where you can’t watch the National Championship, right?
Absolutely. I’m OK watching the game on TV, I have no problem with that.
