House Reclaiming His Confidence with the Packers

In his second stint, cornerback Davon House is thankful to be back in Green Bay where his career started.

It took a couple of lopsided years with the Jaguars for him to truly appreciate his time with the Packers. Now, entering his seventh season in the NFL and fifth total with the Packers, he's just grateful for the opportunity.

"I was hoping to come back here," House said after Monday's practice. "Like I said before, I never threw away any of my Packers stuff I had before. I'm glad I didn't, I'm going need it in the cold again."

Going from frigid Green Bay to sunny Jacksonville, getting acclimated to the new climate and then returning back to America's Dairyland can be a tough transition on the body. Even despite the back-and-forth, House never fell out of tune with his once-former team.

"It was always wishful thinking. I always kept up, always watched them because they were always on TV."

House has strung along his own heightened confidence and it seems to have radiated amongst his peers. Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins, both corners drafted in 2015 expected to bounce back after injury-riddled campaigns a year ago, highlight a group that could use any form of advice that House has to offer.

After recording four interceptions during the last half of the Jaguars' 2015 season, House fell off in 2016 once they switched to a more zone-oriented scheme. House excels in bump-and-run styles of defense, the likes of which defensive coordinator Dom Capers employs.

"My first year in Jacksonville, I was confident, bought in. We did a lot of things that helped the defense and me, and that was played more man," House said. "I thrived at it as you can tell by my numbers. Next year around, some things I didn't agree with; wished we could've been more aggressive on the back end. If anything, I didn't buy in all the way and it was a little tougher for me to agree with some of the things we were doing."

House is already projected to be one of the Packers' starting perimeter corners by the time week one of the regular season comes around. For what it's worth, he's been given first-team repetitions in each practice.

Any way House can help a porous Packers pass defense from a season ago is going to pay dividends. It all starts with his confidence levels and how the rest of that group can rally around their newfound leader in cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt Jr.'s unit.

"I can help this group by being me. Being a good guy, making plays on the field—which I know is going to come—and trying to help the others."

According to Ryan Wood of PackersNews.com, House was giving tips to receiver Davante Adams on press jams off the line of scrimmage. The last time House and Adams shared a locker room together, Adams was just a rookie. Now he's prepping for what is expected to be another stellar season.

House has helped mentor younger players on both sides of the ball, which just a further testament to his leadership perks. When the Packers brought House back to Green Bay in March, they were getting much more than what they were paying $3.5 million dollars for. They were getting a sense of familiarity and someone who can step in and contribute right away: a necessity.

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Zachary Jacobson is a staff writer/reporter for Cheesehead TV. He's the voice of The Leap on iTunes and can be heard on The Scoop KLGR 1490 AM every Saturday morning. He's also a contributor on the Pack-A-Day Podcast. He can be found on Twitter via @ZachAJacobson or contacted through email at [email protected].

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Comments (3)

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Spock's picture

August 01, 2017 at 02:50 pm

I really like the mentorship. That is not too typical on other teams from what I understand. There's some famous quote about a veteran player on some other team who,when asked about mentoring a rookie (for the same position), gave his response as something like, "Yeah, I'll mentor him...all the way to the bench." The Packers are known for fostering a 'pay it back' attitude with the veterans; that's just another thing I love about 'my' (I do own stock, LOL) team.

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Handsback's picture

August 01, 2017 at 02:53 pm

I like this article. To put this in perspective, House isn't a shut-down corner, however he has been and could be a very good. This is the type of trade /pick-up that BB does in NE all the time. TT has done it yet it's very risky to some fans. OK, lets see if House is still the guy that can get the job done before we shout how bad he was last year.

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Gianich's picture

August 01, 2017 at 03:45 pm

Hopefully he doesn't "cash out" after he has been able to "buy in" once again..... Would like 100% "buy in" kind of guy no matter the scheme. I think he'll do well.

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