Fantasy Football: Corey Davis faced insane amount of elite coverage in ’18

The deck was truly stacked against Tennessee Titans wide receiver Corey Davis in 2018.

There were so many factors going against Tennessee Titans wide receiver Corey Davis in 2018, it’s a surprise his fantasy football numbers weren’t worse.

Davis was a lonely receiver on the Titans offense last season. Not because he doesn’t have any friends, but because there weren’t many viable receivers around him.

Tight end Delanie Walker played in just one game, and the rest of the receiving corps. simply wasn’t enough to alleviate the added attention on Tennessee’s No. 1 receiver from opposing defenses.

Not to mention, he had to deal with backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert throwing him the rock when starting signal-caller Marcus Mariota was dealing with an injury.

As if that wasn’t enough for Davis to overcome in 2018, he also faced a ridiculous amount of elite coverage in his second season.

According to Scott Barrett of Pro Football Focus, a whopping 43 percent of Davis’ targets were against top-25 cornerbacks, which shakes out to the highest total in the entire league.

"1. Last season, Corey Davis saw 43% of his targets come when lined up against top-25-graded cornerbacks, the highest rate in the league among 94 qualifying WRs."

That is a truly eye-opening stat, and makes his 65 catches for 891 yards and four touchdowns — all career-highs — even more impressive. In the face of all that adversity, Davis finished as WR28 in PPR formats, per Fantasy Pros.

Things will be drastically different in 2019. Opposing defenses will have to focus a lot more attention to the middle of the field, as Walker will return and slot receiver Adam Humphries was added in the offseason. Rookie wideout A.J. Brown is another target defenses must account for.

While that can be construed as a potential issue with so many players to compete for targets with, Davis caught just 58 percent of the passes thrown his way last season. That means the third-year pro can still do more with less if he just catches a higher percentage of his targets.

By looking at his schedule alone, Davis has another tough slate of cornerbacks to go up against in 2019, but thankfully he does have more help around him to avoid getting extra attention.

And, if you’ve been watching Davis in camp, you know how great he has looked, and the prospect of him having a breakout campaign this season is looking better by the day.

If you own him in fantasy football or are targeting him in an upcoming draft, Davis’ upcoming slate doesn’t worry me at all. In fact, this PFF stat only reinforces that Davis can still thrive against top-flight coverage and be a productive receiver.