Tight end Vernon Davis is days away from hitting the open market, but he’d rather re-sign with the Redskins than test free agency.
“You know I’m letting my agent deal with that at the moment with hopes that I’ll be back with the Washington Redskins,” Davis told JP Finlay of CSN Mid-Atlantic. (via Peter Halley of CSN). “I’ll just be optimistic about it. I would love to stay here because it’s such a great organization. The locker room’s amazing. I’m extremely happy here, and it would only make sense to stay here and continue to be a Washington Redskin.”
Davis, an ex-Maryland star and a native of D.C., joined his hometown team last offseason on a $2.38MM deal. That proved to be a bargain for the Redskins, with whom Davis hauled in 44 receptions, 583 yards and two touchdowns in 16 games and 14 starts. Last season was something of a bounce-back campaign for the 33-year-old. Although he won a Super Bowl with the Broncos in 2015, Davis failed to record a touchdown in a year spent between Denver and San Francisco and averaged 10.4 yards per catch (well below his 13.3 YPC from 2016) on 38 receptions. Davis attributes some of his latest success to Redskins head coach Jay Gruden.
“I love him, I love him, and that’s one of the other reasons that I wouldn’t mind staying here,” he said. “He allows the players to play really, really loose, and you want that in a coach.”
While Davis hopes to continue playing under Gruden, he’s currently part of an unsigned tight end crop that also includes Martellus Bennett, Jared Cook and Jack Doyle, among others. Age isn’t on Davis’ side, but his track record is better than the other impending free agent tight ends’. Across 10 seasons, the 6-foot-3, 250-pounder has piled up 505 receptions and 57 touchdowns.
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Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I remember he helped my fantasy for like 3 weeks this year when I needed a waiver wire pickup. He still has a little left in the tank.
Ha, great picture guys