Former NFL defensive tackle and two-time All-Big Ten selection at Iowa
Carl Davis is a former National Football League defensive tackle who was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the third round, 90th overall, of the 2015 NFL Draft. He appeared in 78 regular-season games with 19 starts across ten years on NFL rosters, recording 71 tackles, 2.5 sacks and five tackles for loss as an interior run defender. Davis played for the Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders, with his longest tenure coming in New England from 2020 to 2022, where he played all 17 games in 2021.
Davis played college football at the University of Iowa, starting all 26 games at defensive tackle over his final two seasons. He was named second-team All-Big Ten by the league coaches in both 2013 and 2014 and finished his college career with 94 tackles. As a senior he recorded 36 tackles with nine tackles for loss, two sacks and a blocked field goal, received Iowa's Coaches Appreciation Award for defense, and accepted an invitation to the Senior Bowl. He was one of five seniors named to Iowa's 2014 leadership group and studied leisure studies at the university.
A Detroit native, Davis was named first-team all-state by the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News and The Macomb Daily at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Sterling Heights, Michigan, where he also lettered in basketball and track and field. In 2016 he founded the Trenchwork Foundation, which has run free youth football and education camps in Detroit.
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