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Dominique Davis was a revelation in preseason last year. The Falcons simply haven't had a young, confident, athletic quarterback with a quality arm behind Matt Ryan since he came into the league, and he made Chris Redman and John Parker Wilson look like lesser options while he carved up third-string defenses.
Fast forward a year forward. Davis comes into the preseason as the clear backup to Ryan, so long as he doesn't faceplant. In his first game against backups this year relieving Ryan, he...faceplanted. Davis himself wasn't shy about admitting this.
"I’m hard on myself," Davis said. "I’m my biggest critic, and I think I played horrible."
That leaves Davis in an interesting position. He needs to prove that last year wasn't fluky, but he's also working against fans who abandoned his bandwagon in droves after that lousy Bengals game. It was only one game, but there's a lot of anxiety surrounding giving a young, unproven quarterback the first crack at the field if something should happen to Matt Ryan, even if the talent is clearly there. He'll get his chance to dispel that anxiety against the Ravens.
Ultimately, it would take a truly abysmal preseason for Davis to lose his job, to Sean Renfree or a veteran. A quality performance tonight would go a long way toward calming down the pro-veteran crowd and keeping the coaching staff from reconsidering their clear devotion to Davis.
How do you think Davis will fare tonight?