Rookie progress report: Jamin Davis
Checking in with how first-round linebacker Jamin Davis is developing
It would be fair to say Washington’s first-round pick hasn’t lived up to expectations so far. Jamin Davis was expected to be a defensive rookie of the year candidate given he would be coached by two former NFL linebackers in Head Coach Ron Rivera and Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio, while also playing behind a defensive line full of former first-round picks. However, his NFL career started very slow as he struggled to adjust to the speed of the professional game and processing all the information being thrown at him by NFL offenses.
However, in recent weeks, Davis has started to play more frequently and the game has begun to slow down for him. This has enabled him to start showing some of his talent and athletic ability and actually make some plays to contribute to the defense. He did just that against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday and I thought a few were worth highlighting and breaking down.
The first play that caught my eye with Davis was a play from the Panthers read-option package with Cam Newton at quarterback. Read-option plays can be tough for linebackers to decipher, but to start the game, Davis played them well.
On this play, the Panthers are running a counter trey scheme with both the left guard and left tackle pulling to the right side. The guard pulls and kicks out the edge defender while the tackle pulls and wraps around for the linebacker. The twist the Panthers use on this scheme is that Newton is the player running behind the pullers instead of a running back. The back is sent on a jet sweep motion across the formation and Newton can either hand it off to the back or keep it and run behind the pulling lineman.
This is obviously a lot of a young linebacker like Davis to process in a short amount of time. The motion happens before the snap, so Davis sees that and shuffles inside as an adjustment, but then the ball is snapped and he has to locate who has the ball and find who is going to try and block him. At the start of the year, this might have caused Davis to freeze, but here he quickly gets his eyes on his keys and spots the guard and tackle pulling to the right side. That enables him to start flowing to the edge as he adjusts his eyes to locate the ball. He spots Newton keeping the ball as well as the pulling tackle approaching him. Davis looks to close on the tackle but then notices Newton bouncing his run outside and adjusts his path to the edge. James Smith-Williams on the edge does a good job peeling off his block and containing Newton, but Davis was right there too and ready to make a play. Newton admits defeat and slides behind the line of scrimmage for a loss instead of taking a hit from Davis.
It wasn’t just a case of one good play for Davis either. He showed he was processing information much quicker than he did earlier in the season and was much more active in the run game as a result, even against some tough read-option schemes.
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