One of the positives to take away from the Bucs’ 34-23 loss to the New Orleans Saints is the continued progression of Carlton Davis as a number one corner. Davis, entering his third season, likely will shadow the other team’s best receivers this upcoming season.

Tasked with defending All-Pro wide receiver Michael Thomas on Sunday, Davis held Thomas to just three receptions for 17 yards in an impressive performance against one of the best receivers in the game.

It’s the first of many match-ups for Davis against the best receivers in the league, as he’ll likely battle Julio Jones, Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, and others this season. Davis has all the confidence he needs to be ready for what’s next.

“It just comes from putting in work,” Davis said. “Only hard work can breed confidence and my coaches putting me in a position to show my skill set and be able to provide what our team needs in a corner. Just having those guys trust me and having our coaches giving me this job is everything I need to go out there and do the job.

Bucs CB Carlton Davis – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“At the end of the day I’m going to do whatever I can to help the team win. I’ve always been this kind of corner where I’m following the best receiver since college, so coming to the NFL, it’s definitely different but it’s the same job and I’m used to the pressure.”

The secondary as a whole played well, with Sean Murphy-Bunting, who had five tackles and one tackle for loss, leading the charge along with Davis in holding Drew Brees to only 160 yards.

“I definitely think we played with more chemistry as a group,” Davis said. “We played together, we played as one, we executed the game plan, we got a lot more comfortable with [Todd] Bowles and his play calls. We’re a lot more comfortable with each other so we kind of trust each other to do our job on the field and everybody’s just focused on doing their job and supporting our teammates however we can.”

The next order of business that the secondary needs to do in their home opener against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday – create takeaways.

“There’s never a perfect game, there’s always something that you can do better,” Davis said.”We just reviewed the film and have seen what we could have done better. We got to create more turnovers as a defense to give our offense a better chance, better field position and give them more chances with the ball in their hands.”