Colts safety Akeem Davis signs exclusive rights free agent tender

The Indianapolis Colts announced today that safety Akeem Davis has signed his exclusive rights free agent tender, officially ensuring that he will be back with the team.

There's really no surprise with this announcement whatsoever, as exclusive rights free agents don't really have much of a choice.  Basically, when a player is a restricted free agent its because they don't have enough service time in the league to be a restricted or unrestricted free agent, yet their contracts are expiring.  At that point, the team has the option to either tender them or not.  If not, the player is free to sign elsewhere, but if the team places a tender on the player, he cannot negotiate with any other team, meaning he'd have to either play for the team or not play anywhere.  As you can see, there's really no choice to be made, so it's zero surprise that Akeem Davis has signed his exclusive rights free agent tender.

Davis was claimed by the Colts off of waivers from the Seattle Seahawks in December last season, and he wound up playing in three games for Indy in a special teams role.  In his career, he has spent time in various roles (practice squad, active roster, offseason member, etc.) with the Washington Redskins, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Seattle Seahawks, and Indianapolis Colts.  He has played in 19 career games and has recorded one tackle, one forced fumble, and 12 special teams tackles.  Collegiately, he was a two-time captain at Memphis and had a productive career.

Moving forward, Davis will likely compete for a depth spot at safety this offseason and training camp.  The Colts have Mike Adams and Clayton Geathers as the starters, but after that the position is wide open.  They may add someone through the draft, but at this point they have Winston Guy, Dezmen Southward, and Davis.  There figures to be a competition at the position, then, and Davis' ability to contribute on special teams would figure to help his chances significantly.