Rookie Progress Report: Jamin Davis
Breaking down the development of Washington’s first-round pick
Having already looked at Washington’s second-round pick Sam Cosmi and third-round pick Benjamin St-Juste this week, I figured I should circle back around to the team’s first-round pick. Jamin Davis struggled a bit in the preseason opener. He’s being asked to learn the Mike linebacker position, which requires him to learn the entire defense rather than just one position within it. With a lot on his plate, Davis showed some growing pains in his debut.
His second outing didn’t exactly jump out as fantastic, but there were steady improvements. One of the biggest issues Davis had in the Patriots game was being slow to read and diagnose plays, causing him to be slightly out of position and allowing blockers to reach him in the run game. But from Davis’ first snap against the Bengals, he was determined not to let that happen again.
On this play, the Bengals look to run a pin-pull run scheme to the left. That asks the receiver to block down on defensive end Chase Young while the tight end and left tackle try to pull around him to the edge. From the look of his alignment, Davis appears responsible for the back side A gap between the center and right guard. That right guard attempts to work up to the second level off the snap to try and reach Davis and prevent him from getting outside. Davis, however, reads the guard well and shows off his athleticism to run around him and avoid getting reached and sealed off. With the block avoided, Davis is able to close on the running back and assist in making the tackle.
We didn’t really get to see too much of Davis’ speed and athleticism last week because he was trying to process what he was seeing rather than playing on instinct where he can react quicker. This week we started to see a little more of Davis’ speed, with less time spent processing the information, leading to quicker fits from Davis.
Here, the Bengals attempt an outside zone run to the left. Washington plays with both safeties back, leaving them with a light box. This is a testing situation for Davis as the offense has the same number of blockers in the box as the defense has run defenders. Davis makes a quick read off the snap and then gets up to speed quickly, not hesitating and worrying about if he’s making the right play. That speed allows him to quickly get up to the line and work off a block from the left tackle on his way to tackle the running back.
We still didn’t really see the outstanding range that Davis has on full display, but we saw small increments of progress. Being able to process reads quicker and trust what he sees is the key to letting him play faster and more free. He’s not there yet, but he is improving.
This time, the Bengals call for a duo scheme. This asks the offensive lineman to work double teams on the defensive lineman wherever possible and drive those defensive lineman back as far as possible before peeling off to pick up the linebackers. Davis is responsible for the A gap between the center and right guard, which is the initial aiming point of the run. Davis takes one short step to gather the information and recognize the double teams on the duo scheme. After that, he charges up to the line to fill his gap. He gets up to full speed, which not only enables him to provide a thump when he engages with the right guard, but he also forces the guard to come off the double team on Matt Ioannidis earlier than he would have liked. That allows Ioannidis to work one-on-one and peel off his blocker to make the play.
In general, Davis looked more comfortable and was playing faster. However, there were still occasions where he wasn’t fully sure of himself.
This is a very subtle error, but it’s one that shows Davis is still learning the system and thinking rather than naturally reacting as a veteran in the system might. The Bengals motion a tight end from the left side of the line to the right. That forces Davis to shift over a gap in his pre-snap alignment. However, just before the ball is snapped, Davis appears to second guess himself a little bit. He takes a small step to his right just as the ball gets snapped, which just takes him out of position slightly for a half beat, making it harder for him to avoid getting reached.
There was also one missed read on a run that Davis thought might have been a play-action fake.
Here, the Bengals are looking to run that same pin-pull scheme that we saw in the first play of this post, but to their right side instead of to their left. The jet sweep fake causes the linebackers to shift across a gap just before the snap, which is fine. However, once the ball is snapped, Davis starts running to the right side of the line before hesitating. He spots the quarterback peeling off early rather than working out towards the running back to hand the ball off directly to him. It takes him a moment to realise the quarterback had tossed the ball, rather than keeping it himself, but that split second is all the offense needs to get up to him and seal him off from the play. Fortunately for Davis, Montez Sweat decided to blow up the run and never allowed it to get back to the original line of scrimmage.
So the progress from Davis is slow, but Washington likely expected that by putting so much on his plate so early. The key is that progress in his development is still being made, which it appears to be. It might result in a steep learning curve with Davis struggling a bit early, but it should have long-term benefits should Davis continue progressing.
From a coverage standpoint, Davis wasn’t particularly tested too often. Washington played some man coverage when Davis was on the field, but he mostly just mirrored running backs that were checking protection assignments before spotting up as a check down option. He did have one nice rep in zone coverage that showed a bit of his natural feel for zone coverage that he displayed regularly in college.
On this play, the Bengals have their slot receiver run what appears to be a deep over route, but at the top of it he sits down in the middle of the field rather than breaking across towards the other side of the field. Davis is an underneath zone defender. As the ball is snapped, Davis feels the receiver working inside before getting vertical. Davis sinks back in his zone to match the depth of the receiver while still keeping his eyes on the quarterback.
He anticipates the threat of a deep over, so while still watching the quarterback, he just widens slightly to prevent the quarterback from being able to throw the over route behind him. The quarterback did appear to be looking his way before opting against the throw and trying to scramble. Then we do get a glimpse of Davis’ speed as he chases down the quarterback across the field and gets into position to make a tackle to save the first down before the quarterback slides.
Clearly, there’s still plenty more to come from Washington’s first-round pick as right now he isn’t anywhere close to his full potential. As he learns to gain confidence in his reads and play more instinctively rather than having to overthink and second guess his reads and decisions, the athletic ability should begin to shine through. That will only come with reps though, so we’ll see how he does in Washington’s final preseason game against the Ravens this weekend.