Vernon Davis Traded To The Denver Broncos

Vernon Davis has been traded from the San Francisco 49ers to the Denver Broncos, according to NBC Sports.

Tight ends do not generally get selected very high in the NFL Draft. Vernon Davis was drafted sixth overall by the San Francisco 49ers in 2006. Only three tight ends in the history of the NFL have been chosen higher than Davis.

During the first couple of seasons, Vernon Davis showed promise while suffering from frequent injuries. The San Francisco 49ers still had faith in Davis becoming one of the better players in the NFL. However, there were some concerns in San Francisco about Davis and his maturity.

Mike Singletary was one of the most intense players during his time in the NFL. As head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Singletary demanded the same kind of intensity from his players. Singletary did not feel that Vernon Davis was being as intense as he could possibly be.

During a game against the Seattle Seahawks, Vernon Davis had a mental lapse and caused the San Francisco 49ers to receive a 15 yard penalty. Mike Singletary was irate and sent Davis to the bench. Davis did not take the move well, so Singletary sent him from the bench to the locker room, a very bad sign if you’re an NFL player.

In the locker room after the game, Mike Singletary gave one of his more memorable speeches as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Singletary screamed that he only wanted winners in the locker room. To his credit, Vernon Davis took that speech to heart and decided to improve as both a player and a person instead of whining about it and making the situation worse.

Since then, Vernon Davis has been one of the best players in the NFL. Davis ended up going to two Pro Bowls and also helped the San Francisco 49ers become one of the more dominant teams in the NFL. The team even made it to the Super Bowl, losing to the Baltimore Ravens.

During the final season of Jim Harbaugh being the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Vernon Davis had one of the worst outings of his career. Davis averaged less than two catches a game despite playing in 14 games. Vernon also managed to get into the end zone only twice.

Some felt that it was just a down year for Vernon Davis. Others noted that the San Francisco 49ers were imploding because of the bad relationship between Jim Harbaugh and general manager Trent Baalke. That had quite the affect on the locker room.

When 2015 started, good things were expected from Vernon Davis, even though the San Francisco 49ers lost a ton of talent from the roster. Trent Baalke managed to sign Torrey Smith, whose speed was supposed to help open up the passing attack. Davis was going to benefit by having more room to work the underneath routes against smaller defensive backs.

Vernon Davis has noticeably declined after all these years in the NFL. There are reports from NBC Sports that Davis got into an argument with Joe Staley after calling out Colin Kaepernick for his regression as a quarterback this season. If that was truly the case, then Davis needed to end his time with the San Francisco 49ers and find greener pastures.

The Denver Broncos are one of the four undefeated teams remaining in the NFL. With Peyton Manning struggling a bit, Denver knows that they need to make a huge push for the Super Bowl while they still have their starting quarterback. Providing him with a potential weapon like Vernon Davis while only losing sixth round draft picks could help to make that goal come true.

The Vernon Davis era is over in San Francisco.

[Featured Photo by Christian Petersen / Getty Images ]