When 49ers offensive tackle Anthony Davis played at Rutgers, his coach was current Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano. The two of them didn’t always see eye to eye. And so today when Davis signed a five-year, $37.3 million contract extension with the 49ers, he decided to take a little shot at Schiano to celebrate.
In a tweet that he later deleted, Davis wrote about a conversation he once had with Schiano, in which Schiano had told Davis that Davis wouldn’t last in the NFL, beyond his rookie contract.
“You will be a 1 contract and done kinda guy in the NFL. - Greg Schiano,” Davis wrote on Twitter.
It’s long been known that Davis and Schiano butted heads at Rutgers, especially over Davis’s weight. At one point Schiano lamented that he couldn’t fine Davis for being overweight the way an NFL coach could, and so he did the only thing he could do to get Davis’s attention and demoted Davis to second string for failing to make weight. But Schiano probably deserves some credit for the way he got on Davis’s case about conditioning: Davis showed up to Rutgers as a fat 363-pound freshman and left Rutgers as a 323-pound stud whom the 49ers took with the 11th overall pick in the 2010 NFL draft. And when Davis announced that he was leaving Rutgers to enter the draft, Schiano said, “There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s ready and that he’ll be dominant in that league.”
If Schiano actually told Davis that he’d only last long enough in the NFL to get one contract, then Davis proved Schiano wrong. But Schiano may have been telling Davis that he’d only last long enough in the NFL to get one contract unless Davis worked hard and stayed in shape. If that was what Schiano was saying, then that’s just good coaching.
And so Schiano may deserve some of the credit for Davis’s success. Even if Davis doesn’t plan to send him a thank-you note.