Packer Central

Packers Sign Cornerback Who Had Been Selling Shoes

Out of the league for almost a year, LJ Davis had the largest smile in the Green Bay Packers’ locker room on Tuesday after being signed by the team.

Bill Huber

New Green Bay Packers CB LJ Davis is shown with the Tennessee Titans last year.
New Green Bay Packers CB LJ Davis is shown with the Tennessee Titans last year. / Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean / USA
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – At the end of training camp last summer, the Tennessee Titans released cornerback LJ Davis. Until this week, that was his last opportunity in the NFL.

His life changed on Tuesday. The Green Bay Packers invited Davis and several other cornerbacks for a workout. Davis and Don Callis emerged with roster spots.

“They called me for a tryout. I was at home working and came out and did what I had to do,” said Davis, who was wearing a smile larger than the enormous suitcase placed at his locker in the Lambeau Field locker room.

Davis played in 32 games at Southern Utah from 2017 through 2021 before transferring to Northern Arizona for his final season in 2022. He started the final six games of the season and notched two interceptions and nine pass breakups.

Davis went undrafted and signed with the Titans as a tryout player at their rookie camp. In three preseason appearances, he allowed just one catch, according to Pro Football Focus, but was released in their final roster cutdown.

And that was that, other than a brief stint with the CFL’s British Columbia Lions this year.

Nonetheless, Davis kept working, even though the NFL world seemingly had forgotten about him.

“You stay ready, you ain’t got to get ready,” he said. “I was always ready for the call, and it came. So, I came up here and I showed out.”

For Callis, it had been about two-and-a-half months since getting rookie-camp tryouts with the Packers and 49ers. For Davis, it was about 11 months between stints in an NFL locker room.

Was it hard to stay motivated? To keep working for an opportunity that might never come?

“Absolutely. It gets very discouraging,” Davis said. “You stay ready, you stay ready. You hear that your whole time when you’re training, but some days are harder than others. You get up and you’re like, ‘Am I doing this for nothing? Hopefully I’m not.’ God always has a plan, so I’m glad that it’s this.”

Davis, who had been working at a Nike store in Lehi, Utah, “passing out shoes and handing out memberships,” was hopeful after the workout. His agent, Will Harris II, gave him the good news that, indeed, his hard work had paid off.

“I texted him after the thing this morning,” Davis said. “I said, ‘I killed that.’ As soon as I texted him, he called me and said, ‘Congrats. They offered you a contract.’ I’m like, ‘That’s what I came here for.’ I told him before I came here that I was going to leave with something. That was it.”

Davis is a prospect with some moldable traits. At pro day before last year’s draft, he measured 6-foot-1 1/4 and 203 pounds and ran his 40 in 4.46 seconds.

“Length, speed, aggression,” is what he brings to the table. “I’m a corner. I played receiver first in college. Intelligence, for sure. I’m a football player. Complete. I’m not here to just guard one person. I’m here to help the team out and do whatever it is that I can help the team do.”

Davis said being signed by the Packers was the highlight of his football career. However, he knows it’s not the finish line. It’s the starting point. A lot of early mornings and late nights are ahead, he said, to catch up with the rest of the cornerbacks.

“There’s more work to do,” he said. “It doesn’t stop here. It doesn’t stop here. I know I’ve got to make the team, not just be on it.”

More Green Bay Packers Training Camp News

News and analysis: New CB Don Callis | Highlights from Practice 7 | Seeking best O-line | Three added, three released | Packers pick parade | Week 1 gold, silver, bronze | Week 1 stock report | Highlights from Practice 6 | King for a day | Highlights from Practice 5 | Unsung hero gets new position | Highlights from Practice 4 | “Family” not divas at receiver | Highlights from Practice 3 | Highlights from Practice 2 | Highlights from Practice 1 


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Bill Huber

BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packer Central, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.