Craig "Buster" Davis (born October 2, 1985) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

wide receiver. He was drafted by the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

Early years

Davis was rated the number one wide receiver in Louisiana and a national blue chipper as a senior at O.P. Walker High School. In his final year he caught 82 passes for 1,171 yards and 16

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s leading his school to the 4A state championship game. He was named an All-American by SuperPrep and ranked the No. 12 wide receiver in the country by

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. The ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

'' named Davis as a member of the All-Southern Team. He also made ''

The Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

s Top 25 Blue-Chip list and ''

Shreveport Times ''The Times'' is a Gannett daily newspaper based in Shreveport, Louisiana. Its distribution area includes 12 parishes in Northwest Louisiana and three counties in East Texas. Its coverage focuses on issues affecting the Shreveport-Bossier market, ...

'' ' Top 20.

College career

Davis enrolled in

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

in 2003. He was forced to compete for game time with an extremely talented Tigers receiving corp that helped lead LSU to a

BCS National Championship The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college foot ...

. He caught 7 passes for 63 yards, most of which came in LSU's 49–10 victory over

Louisiana Tech Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activi ...

. In Davis'

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

year the Tigers failed to repeat their success of 2003. In spite of this Davis emerged as the Tiger's receiving leader with 43 catches for 659 yards. He scored his first touchdown in the Tigers 24–7 win over Vanderbilt. Davis played in 11 of the Tigers games in 2005, starting 5. He ranked third on the team with 35 receptions, for 559 yards and 2 touchdowns. The high point of his season came in the

Peach Bowl The Peach Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta, Georgia since December 1968. Since 1997, it has been sponsored by Chick-fil-A and is officially known as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. From 2006 to 2013, it was officially re ...

where he caught 5 passes for 99 yards and a touchdown in a 40–3 win over

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. As a senior Davis doubled as a receiver and a

punt returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...

. He finished the year with 56 catches for 834 yards and four touchdowns. He finished his career with four catches for 50 yards in the

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed onl ...

against Notre Dame in his home of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

Receiving

Professional career

San Diego Chargers

Davis was drafted by the

30th overall at the end of the 1st round of the 2007 NFL Draft. On July 23, 2007, Davis agreed with the Chargers on a 5-year $11 million contract just before training camp. If Davis played out the contract, it was worth $7.83 million with about $3.2 million in incentives. He finished his rookie season playing in 14 games, with one start, making 20 receptions for 188 yards and one

. During his second season Davis only played in four games due to an injury. He finished the season with four receptions for 59 yards. Davis was released by the Chargers on July 28, 2011.

Buffalo Bills

Davis signed with the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

on August 4, 2011. The Bills cut Davis on September 3, 2011.

References

External links

San Diego Chargers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Craig 1985 births Living people American football wide receivers LSU Tigers football players San Diego Chargers players Buffalo Bills players Players of American football from New Orleans