Dan Campbell's VISION FULFILLED Of Marcus Davenport!

well there's been a lot of controversy surrounding the Detroit Lions and their defensive end position for the last few seasons lot of lions fans really wanted the Detroit Lions to go out and grab a couple of high-profile defensive ends in free agency what would have been an extremely expensive move for Brad Holmes he opted to go into a different direction and that being Marcus Davenport and largely what people believe with Marcus dport is he's of injured uh too often he's not able to to contribute to help his team because he's on the bench re having injuries or he's at home or he's in the training facility but he's not on the field this season well we were hoping for something different and in week one versus the Los Angeles Rams Marcus Davenport appeared to be the guy who we thought he could be and right away affected the game early on getting to Matthew Stafford and creating some pressure for the offensive line um the lights the Lions have really cycled through a a few players at the defensive Edge position uh throughout the last few seasons but most notably you know Charles Harris has moved off of the aquara brothers uh John Kaminsky is now hurt now some of these players play inside and outside roles or did for the Detroit Lions in Seasons past but last year the Lions could not generate enough pressure with the guys that were coming in off the bench or the guys that were opposite of Aiden Hutchinson this season we hope to see that corrected and again like I said Marcus Davenport provided a spark early in this game uh lining up opposite of Aiden Hutchinson is not an easy task someone that has such a high motor like Aiden Hutchinson does who creates a lot of pressure uh has a bevy of of a few pass rush moves now that are providing him with some opportunity to be able to make it to the quarterback but Aiden himself just hasn't been able to get home all the time he's creating a lot of pressure but he's not able to finish and that's why the Lions needed to find somebody they could take some pressure away from Aiden so he could reapply that pressure to the quarterback and we saw that one-w punch out of Marcus Davenport and Aiden Hutchinson in week one now it's early it's early in the season we don't have DJ reader now on on this squad you know in in day in week I'm sorry in game one but we will see DJ reader the plan is anyway in week two and what I'm expecting is going to be an even bigger push from this defensive line and more opportunity for both Marcus Davenport and Aiden Hutchinson now week one has come to an end and lions were Victorious uh their rankings uh as far as defense they have moved into a top 10 defense right now according to the power rankings and some have them as high as top five uh for the week as far as their rankings are considered now Dan Campbell said that Marcus Davenport is exactly the type of player that he had hoped he would be and his quote is this yeah huge play huge play the ends it really it's really what we uh this is the vision the whole time uh this was what we knew we were going to get when Davenport uh when we got Davenport and we felt really good about the production Hutch is bringing and brought last year and what he was going to be able to bring this year then just the thought of somebody who can crush the can over there crush the can and send him his way a little bit or vice versa and that's what Davenport can do and that's what we've seen this weekend right I mean Davenport you know he's known to be able to barrel down that line and create pressure and push the quarterback to the other side and the minute minute that we start to see DJ reer applying pressure through the middle uh making the quarterback make a decision to go to Aiden or go to Davenport that's when you're going to see a new element from this defense really start to take off the good news is is Davenport actually plays really disciplined and he was really disciplined this weekend and he was allowing for more opportunity uh to Aiden Hutchinson as he can his Edge and allowed Aiden to kind of push down and crash down the line if you will uh to get to Matthew Stafford and and I believe he got to they both did at least one time in the game now he went on to say this about davp too Dan Campbell he said he's long he's physical he's strong he's a big man so that showed up today it showed up we were able to hem him up a few times in there and and so those it's good for him it's going to be good for Hutch and it's going to be good for Davenport and you see that's the key here it's not that Davenport is going to come in and just get you 15 sacks right we're not outspending the lions are not out spending 2530 million on an edge rusher that isn't going to really do anything much different than what Davenport's already going to do for you know uh a quarter of that money the goal is to utilize the pieces on this defense and to accentuate them to make them better to allow them to have more opportunity and if you have a highly disciplined guy like Marcus davp is with the strong ability that he does possess uh and The Knack to getting to the quarterback um that he that he also provides it is going to allow Aiden to have more opportunity it's going to allow Alem to have more opportunity and that's exactly what Dan Campbell had envisioned for this defense all of these key pieces working together and finally starting to see a defense that is going to put the right pressure on keep the pressure on stay disciplined not allow the quarterback to squirt out you know and gash us for big yards not allow a running back to get past uh you know our bookends if you will and forcing everything to the interior allowing DJ reader and Alene mcneel uh to take care of it now Marcus Davenport did get in on uh on Matthew Stafford this weekend and uh according to the film study and what we're going to be doing tonight at 7 pm um everyone that is that has watched this tape and has seen what Marcus Davenport has been able to do already man the bull rush uh was just absolutely incredible by Marcus Davenport uh this was uh you know early in the game that we had seen Marcus Davenport um really given his uh opponent fits man he's going a th000 miles per hour and he's able to push the lineman back into Stafford uh you know early in this game getting his hands up in time before Stafford throws it incomplete and that's another thing that you're going to see with Marcus Davenport he is constantly getting his hands up trying to bat the balls down we don't see that enough from the other side and we definitely haven't seen that enough through the middle of this defense DJ reer is another guy that is really good at getting his hands up to knock these balls down uh and it really goes unnotice just how important it is to have those little keys to your game be refined right and to install them uh now into this defense is going to take this defense to new heights just a couple of bed balls per game can really change the direction of a game in a hurry uh and force teams to do different things and and quite honestly to not throw that way whatever way you know if Davenport's on the right or the left or DJ reer and Davenport are on the right or the left it's going to force uh teams to play differently right to scheme differently and uh and quite honestly with this defense you know being allowed to move around as much as it is you just never know where it's going to come from so this Vision that Dan Campbell has uh look it's the same vision that I had it's the same thing that I was saying all offseason that it was time to install uh you know a guy like DJ reader in the middle of this defense and go out and find a capable young veteran younger veteran that has proven himself at times that isn't going to break the bank and that's Marcus Davenport and so far uh what we've seen is this 6'6 Behemoth of a man can play and I had a very good game this weekend we're super excited to see what's going to happen again on Sunday versus the Tampa Bay Bucks [Music]