Can Jamin Davis successfully transition into more of a pass rusher?

The Commanders are trying out Davis as more of a pass rusher, but what does he have to offer in that type of role?

One of the interesting topics of Commanders minicamps and OTAs has been how Jamin Davis fits on the roster. The linebacker position has been overhauled by the new regime, with Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu signed in free agency and Jordan Magee was drafted in the fifth round. The team declined Davis’s fifth year option and thus Davis is now in a contract year. Wagner and Luvu are the likely starting linebacker duo and the NFL is rarely in three linebacker personnel packages any more. That leaves Davis in an awkward position and as such the Commanders are experimenting with Davis as an edge rusher. 

The idea of Davis being used in more of a pass rush role isn’t new among Commanders fans and media. Many have actually been calling for him to be used as more of a rusher for a while, with some pointing to Micah Parsons being an athletic linebacker that transitioned into more of a pure pass rusher and citing Jamin Davis as another very athletic linebacker. While it’s true that Davis is a very athletic linebacker, he’s a very different type of athlete to Parsons and while Parsons was drafted as a linebacker, he also had experience as an edge rusher in college. Davis rarely rushed at all in college and hasn’t been particularly effective in the NFL when doing so either. 

I’ve never quite liked the idea of using Davis as a rusher or trying to move him to the edge because he’s never really shown many pass rush traits. Clearly, the Commanders aren’t sold on him as a long term linebacker on this team and so are trying him out on the edge just in case, which is fair enough, but I’d be surprised if it leads anywhere. But as the Commanders are trying him out there, I figured I would look back at the All-22 from last season to see where Davis is at as a pass rusher at this point in his career. Davis was credited with three sacks last season and seven in his NFL career to date. However, two of his sacks last year came on plays where he wasn’t actually rushing the quarterback. 

This clip shows two of Davis’s sacks from last season. Both of these sacks come from Davis chasing down the quarterback as they run to the edge after the original play breaks down. Now that’s not to discredit Davis at all, they’re both good plays and the first one against the Broncos was actually a game changing play as it forced a fumble that led to the Commanders coming back to win a game that they were 21-3 down in. However, neither of these sacks show any type of pass rushing ability from Davis as he didn’t take on a blocker or fly around the edge to get to the quarterback, he simply showed off his range to chase them down once they had left the pocket and were scrambling. 

When it comes to actual pass rush reps, Davis was largely underwhelming. The most common way he was used as a rusher was on simulated pressures, where he would join the rush from one side of the line and a defensive end would drop off and replace him in coverage on the other side. These simulated pressures are designed to overwhelm the offensive line and disguise where rushers come from, but sometimes the offense spots where the pressure is coming from. On those occasions, you need the rushers to go beat a blocker and Davis struggled with that. 

On this play, we see Davis joining the rush from the left side of the offensive line while the defensive end from the right side drops back into coverage to replace him. The Eagles spot the scheme pre-snap and adjust their protection, with the left guard positioning himself early to pick up Davis. Without the element of surprise, Davis has to offer something else to beat the guard and he simply doesn’t have much else to offer. He approaches the line of scrimmage and tries a little stutter move before landing a punch to the chest of the guard, but the guard easily absorbs the punch and stonewalls him. When the ball is thrown, you can see that the left guard is actually the offensive lineman that has lost the least ground from the original line of scrimmage, telling you Davis offered no real push at all. 

This was the case when Davis rushed off the edge too. 

This time, Davis is part of a five-man rush and works off the edge against Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata. Now Mailata is one of the better left tackles in the league, but he’s also on a team the Commanders face twice a year, so if Davis is to play on the edge, he would need to be capable of causing him some issues. As you can see on this rep, Mailata has no issues picking up Davis off the edge. Davis lands two hands to the chest of Mailata but they lack any real power behind them and Mailata is easily able to absorb that punch and gently work Davis beyond the quarterback without letting him get anywhere close to him. 

It wasn’t just against Mailata that Davis struggled on the edge.