Lions Most OVERLOOKED Signing! Best #2 EDGE In The NFL? Marcus Davenport Breakdown

what is up everybody welcome back to another video in today's video we are back with another breakdown video for the Detroit liance and today we are diving back into the free agency side of things with a player that feels like he's gone under the radar a little bit too long so let's get it started today we are back with another breakdown video and I'm super excited for this video because we've talked about this player a little bit we've shown some graphics I may have said some things on a few shorts posted on this channel but specifically this needed a full breakdown because this is a player that feels like he's been a little bit overlooked in what he could potentially mean for the Lions this upcoming season and I think some of this may have been brought to light a little bit when PFF ranked our defensive line at number four heading into the season and then they also ranked this player as one of the top 32 Edge rushers this season and I'm not talking about Aiden Hutchinson maybe that brought some light to the situation and it feels like the perfect time to dive into this player now it's understandable why he would be overlooked specifically because historically he's just dealt with a ton of injuries from shoulder to toe ankle he's dealt with a chest he's dealt with a ton of injuries and he's missed a significant amount of time that being said though most seasons outside of last season he typically plays double digit games but last season was such a disaster with the Minnesota Vikings after signing a pro it deal having a high angle sprain that essentially limited him to playing in two games I mean he barely played in the first game and then the last game he only played 17 snaps against the Chicago Bears so he really only played like two games Kansas City and Carolina this past season season statistically didn't do a ton production wise it was also graded as his Worst season according to PFF only seven pressures on that season but because of that the lions were able to sign him to a one-year $6.5 million deal with 3 million fully guaranteed some of that's with in a voider going into next season after his contract expires I feel like we may be overlooking this player a little bit too much and I know I brought the stats up before and I'm going to do that again to get this thing started before we start diving into the player in the film that I watched and I will say a lot of the film that you're going to see in this video is from 2022 there is some from 2023 I've went through all his 2023 games multiple times so I've already done that but a lot of the film's actually going to be through 2022 because just a much larger sample size it's also a little bit of a different role we got to see Marcus Davenport in and that is who we are going to be discussing today I don't think I said his name yet Marcus Davenport the Lions one-year Edge rusher signing this off season that I think is getting a little bit overlooked so that's the perfect place to start let's just start with a little back round in terms of statistics here let me give some perspective to all of this because as I mentioned outside of last season he usually plays double digit games for example last year he played 118 snaps four games only really played in like two of those games but before that 2022 played in 15 games 490 snaps 2021 played 11 games 437 snaps year before that in 2020 11 games 374 snaps year before that 2019 he played in 13 games 533 snaps so again you don't expect that you're going to get a full season you're probably going to have some M time time here but let's just say if we just went based on that he played in 11 games 111 12 game for the Lions I would be happy with that honestly as a lions fan on a one-year deal especially if he gives you similar production to what he did throughout that sample size with the New Orleans Saints as a former first round pick out of UTSA because this is where things get interesting and without even watching The Players these numbers I think are going to draw your attention so Marcus dport as I said last season seven total pressures according to PFF 9% pressure rate when you take his pressures versus is the pass rush snaps that he had however when you start to go through those years where he had a much larger sample size to look at 2022 34 pressures 12% pressure rate 2021 42 pressures 14% pressure rate 2020 34 pressures 13.65% pressure rate 2019 51 pressures 14.3% pressure rate now those sound great but we need context so let me give you some quick little context let me give you a couple comparisons first off how about danal Hunter now I'm not saying this is danal Hunter but let's just do it because danal hunter that we know well as lions fans he was available this offseason a lot of lions fans wanted him danal Hunter this past season had 80 total pressures obviously he's doing this in a much larger sample size but he was getting those 80 pressures and a 133% pressure rate the year before he had 70 pressures and a 12.3% pressure rate so while it's a much larger sample size as you can see that's a similar pressure rate to what we were getting out of Marcus Davenport essentially year after year after year with New Orleans another player Jonathan greener I've used this example before signed a big deal this off season with the Minnesota Vikings coming off his breakout season across from Will Anderson with the Houston Texans he had 48 pressures had a ton of sacks which is really like the the number that stood out to everybody's the sacks I'm more of a pressure guy personally all right I want you affecting the quarterback and again a pressure is anything between a sack hurries quarterback hits the one I don't love the most is probably quarterback kids it's after the ball is out but all of those things equal a pressure and he had 48 total pressures Jonathan Greener did at an 11.85% pressure rate that is lower than every single season in the last four seasons with the New Orleans Saints for Marcus Davenport let's throw another name Leonard Floyd again you look at the sack number much higher however Leonard Floyd this past season 41 pressures at a 10.5% pressure rate year before 54 at an 11.2% pressure rate year before that he had 58 at an 11.2% pressure rate year before that he had 45 at a 99.1% pressure rate what I am saying is the sample size may not be as large as certain players though again Jonathan Greer that's kind of a similar number to what we've seen from Marcus dport again outside of this past season but what we do see is when he's on the field production follows he gets after the quarterback at a pretty high rate as we see this is not at the Aiden Hutchinson type of rate but for number two Edge rushers like I said in the little short that I think was posted I don't know if I said in the short or just in the live stream but there's a world in which Marcus Davenport could be the best number two Edge rusher in the NFL this season season and if we simply said that hey guarantee is healthy for 12 games who could buy into that being a real possibility especially if for just talking about a guy that affects the quarterback because the pressure numbers back him up for multiple Seasons so we'll have to see what he looks like returning from Minnesota and potentially in a little bit of a different role than what Minnesota did with him I don't think they used him the best that being said though the numbers speak for themselves Marcus Davenport so who is Marcus Davenport what are we talking about here we'll talk about a 6'5 a half defensive end that's 20 7 nearly 28 years old at this point 264 again a former first round pick that has really good arm length essentially 33 and2 in arms and when you looked at his texting scores coming out of UTSA of course a much far school that was picked at number 14 New Orleans traded up to go get him at the time the guy ran a 45840 which is an incredible 40 time with a 163 10 yard split it's a little bit pulled back from the 40 time not the exact same as what you would expect from that kind of 40 time number but still a great 40 time 33 and 1/2 in vertical which is good a 723 cone time which is another good score 22 bench rest rest which is more so average against someone that can kind of play into length and build a 44 120 yard shuttle which is above average and a 104 broad drump which is a great score so he tested out extremely well across the board now I will also point this out when you see the Saints Clips he's wearing 92 when you see the Vikings Clips he's wearing the number zero just keep that in mind with all that being said let's dive into Marcus Davenport let's start here first let's start with the get off let's start with the first step and this is an area where I gave Marcus Davenport a good grade but this is an interesting area for me with Marcus DAV for because I personally like him and I wasn't sure this was going to be the case this actually not what I thought coming into it because at UTSA he kind of played in a standup role I thought I would like him more in that standup role and I know he has a lot of flexibility he does to the defense where the Lions can put him in a lot of different alignments you look at how Minnesota used him not just sub packages where they would walk him around play him over the center like we see with like a guy like Micah Parsons for example but they would also use him as a nine technique on early Downs they put him extremely wide a wide alignment they'd move him around the front with New Orleans we saw him mix from a three technique four technique he go head up with tackles when tight ends was shift over he go head up with tight ends play that six technique and then with Minnesota usually play more on the outside of those alignments rather than playing head up with guys but we've seen him basically play all the way from a three technique to a nine technique that being said it was more so between the four and the nine technique which is where he lives he's not going to be more of a defensive tackle for you but what's interesting about this category is I expected to like him more especially in terms of get off from that two-point stance but that's actually not the case I like him a lot more with his hand in the dirt which is I guess a little bit kind of the opposite from hutchon remember when he came out of Michigan it was like man I kind of like him standing up a little bit more the Lions have allowed him to do that but with Marcus dport I actually like him a lot more with his hand in the dirt now I think he's effective in both spots and typically he's going to line up from what we've seen historically as your right defensive end which means that he's going to get mashed up with your left with your left tackle which on paper is perfect because Aiden Hutchinson typically lines up against opponent's right tackle so it actually meshes perfectly together and how both guys typically align but it's especially from that spot I like it much more with the sand of there I feel like there's a lot more explosiveness in terms of there's not that little fall step and kind of hitch in terms of getting off the line from Marcus Davenport which I think slows him down from a two-point stance especially when he's aligned up against your left tackle it feels like there's a little bit of delay getting off the line footwork in a created fall step but I feel like that is negated when you watch him when he's putting him putting himself in a three-point stance or four-point stance when he has his hand in the dirt I don't think you see as much of that false step and he gets off the line with a lot more consistent explosion now one that I do like when he gets off the line is he's constantly low up field in his first step however when you talk about moving laterally that at times especially throughout the rep you can see him starting to scrape a little bit high on the play and you can also see the footwork change where in that first clip his footwork is he's trying to create that depth with his inside foot versus when he's playing on the back side of the edge he's able to kind of just skip through again he's not consistent with that knee Bend it's not easy he's also just kind of a naturally taller player so this can be a little bit of a problem especially as rep unfolds but getting upfield with good lower pad level that's something especially when he already has his hand in dirt that finds to be effective also you're going to see that he doesn't have the most Slither he's also not the most agile pass rusher and even when you see him getting off the line kind of some of the tightness in his hips that does pop up just look at how he lines up when he's lined up against opponent's left tackles he kind of plays staring at the ball but he's not lined the same way that he would on the opposite side of the field if he was in a standup roll if you put him in a standup roll I actually like him lined up against the right tackle a lot more in certain games we saw that I think Tampa Bay San Francisco where he would switch over to that side I like him more in that spot in a standup role but I love his consistency with his hand in the dirt and this is effective really wherever he is along the defensive line great though about his first step is the consistency that he plays with getting off the line of scrimmage the consistency and reactive timing that constantly shows up the ability to watch the ball and get good jumps on the football you'll see occasions where he's kind of timing up the timing up the snap count but you rarely ever are going to see him jump off sides I didn't know one example where he jumped outside also covers good depth and I think especially shows up a little bit closer to the football that he is again some times I don't love that when he's in that standup rle it feels like he's getting a little bit limited out of his snaps it kind of has like a buildup into his second stride versus first stride just doesn't feel as effective I think there's good explosiveness there he covers good ground but it's not Elite in terms of the strides now as a pass rush play some of the lacks of flexibility I think also that does slow down sometimes the strides and the depth that he's able to create which kind of limited limits his plan he kind of has to pull himself back or seemingly slow himself down to be able to set up like inside counters things like that because he can't naturally kind of fly through the pass rush which pulls back his play a little bit and I think does hurt him he anticipates the snap he also you'll see it against run plays for example he's very quick into position kind of like what you think of with a interior offensive lineman like how quick are you set on the play as a run Defender he's very quick to get himself set sit himself down create a wide base get his feet underneath him and be very strong at the point of attack especially if it's not just setting the edge against an offensive tackle but instead dealing with a tight end head up or an offensive tackle head up on the play backside of a Zone play he's very quick into that initial point of attack attack to that initial stance and creating a really strong base but even the same thing at steing the edge against offensive tackles he's very quick to get his footwork into that spot and he's really quick to react to an offensive line scheme he they're going outside Zone to the right he's very quick to get his footwork going that direction now as the play rolls on I don't think some of that lateral athleticism is fantastic and then he kind of starts to pull himself behind and I think again some of that's because he's a little bit stiff and then he kind of turns the runs but in terms of like the first step into that lateral movement it's very good in terms of the timing it's also very good in terms of just the reactive quickness in those spots some of his best examples against the run where he's just constantly blowing up some of those pin pull looks and we got to see this against Atlanta we have to see multiple examples where teams would try to pin it down with a receiver maybe a tight end and then they try to pull around the outside and he would just blow up these plays with his consistency biggest issue also here is that he could fall a little bit behind within that first step because he's aggressive up field and if it does move laterally and he is off on his kind of like judgment there then he can fall himself behind and then some of that recover is not going to be great that being said though another little aspect that I like is while I think he's a little bit stiff I do like that there is sort of that short area quickness within his game able to very quickly kind of come to balance and shorten his footwork kind of like you would think with like a cornerback to stop his forward momentum and slow himself down at times it doesn't look great we've seen him fall in occasions like this where he's trying to stop himself quickly and then he just takes the tumble to the ground he's a little bit upright but for the most part I do like how he can kind of shorten his footwork and position himself into a spot where he's not completely overrunning the play very consistent very good good timing you don't get off sides penalties it's not Elite it's not special it doesn't look like I'm watching James Houston or even Matthew Betts at times but it's good and that's theg great that I ended up giving Marcus stab for there I dislike him a lot more with his hand in the dirt especially when you talk about sub packages hand in the dirt stick him inside let him work one-onone with a guard you feel a lot more suddenness when you watch him in the SP you feel a lot more that explosiveness and getting guys off guard and this might be a little bit of a better example here with his feet and hands in unison as we'll talk about but it's really that explosiveness I mean the one two off the line of scrimmage got on the guard's left hip in this spot opens him up and then he's able to transition that back inside that's just explosive it's that consistency off the line and then this other play I'm just showing it because this is something that we did see especially with the Saints the guy Drew attention he was the guy that Drew the attention of offensive lines you can always use that then you do if you have them stand up like over a center for example and there's other issues that come into that moving on to just the pass rush side as a whole I didn't give him like an elite grade here but I gave him an above average grade in this position for me there's things that I like there's things that I don't like I think there's limitations here the biggest thing that I do like about this is that I feel like the more snaps that he gets the more effective he seems to be and I brought this up in one of our past streams with Marcus dport it doesn't always look pretty yet somehow he always walks away with pressures he's still finds a way to affect a quarterback even if it looks very ugly he'll still find a way to affect a quarterback and what I mean by that is if you look at him for 2022 when you look at his entire 2022 log every game that he had at least 20 pass rush snap apps 20 pass rush opportunities he at least checked in with one pressure but for most of those games multiple pressures game by game one pressure in one game two pressures in another four in another four in another six in another one pressure three pressures that's what he did in every game that he had at least 20 pass rush snaps I think for him what you really do see and it's not like you're going to get strings where he's just beating guys over and over and over you don't typically see that and there's certain matchups like we'll talk about like Trent Williams I thought it was like the worst game that I watched where every time he matched up with Trent didn't seem like he had really a good plan to go at him and it was just like shut that guy out of the game but obviously at right tack when he slide over against mckivitz he had some success Sten Williams argu the best tackle in football but that being said is when you watch him the more snaps that he gets I feel like he does a really nice job with discipline and kind of his vertical push but also the fact that he does a nice job in terms of reacting to the move that he just utilized against an offensive line that could be on the interior that could be on the outside you know early in the game he uses an inside move where he slanting inside or crashing inside on a stunt against a guard and he tries to hit him with I don't know a side step he can come back and kind of play off of that but especially against tackles if he's able to kind of work back toback snaps together and he's able to find that little rhythm that's where I feel like he does a nice job of kind of setting up like I showed you this now I'm going to do this because I just showed you that now here will be a good example because you're going to notice that it shows a plan for Marcus Davenport more Unison with his hands and his footwork but you will also notice on a rep like this as good as this is one his chest seems to be a little bit Exposed on on this inside move and then also the hands feel like they can be a little bit late here where if the offensive tackle gets a hand on the chest cleanly he can kind of halt this rep but you do see with more reps he's able to come with a nice plan and that's where he starts to open up real success because I don't think he has the deepest bag of just terms of ways to win especially around the edge or even with his inside counters has Flash the ability to win inside outside and through his man which is usually where he likes to win so what I'm saying is I think the more staps you give him a little bit of Rhythm he's able to find and he's able to kind of show you one thing and he can start to kind of play off of that that's where I think he starts to find a lot of success now he can be a little bit of an upright pass rusher which of course you don't love and at times it felt like he was really lacking some knee Bend especially with Minnesota me like sitting himself down or sinking down into contact and creating the kind of force that we got to see in the past when transitioning speed into Power though it looked a lot better with the New Orleans Saints I will say it just looked rough especially in his final game against Chicago it was better against can City it looked rough against Chicago biggest issue and we'll talk about this more with flexibility but to kind of just get it started here is I think that he's pretty stiff in the hips especially when you watch him trying to like turn the corner for example I think he does bring some knee Bend and if he goes back to especially what we saw in 2022 and he looks like that guy I think he shows real KNE Ben in that transition from speed to power ability to create real force create momentum in his bull rush attempts and create Force Through the ground which is very consistent he can do it over and over and over that is something I think he does carry and that's where you can see that transition from upfield push he's a little bit of a threat there he plays with good discipline and transition that into just walk back and not back and he is a physical Menace man I mean it is it is a lot of force that he brings however I think the stiffness in his hips can just limit his ability to consistantly turn the corner and roll through the corner he also seems to lose speed in those spots then if you talk about just in terms of just turning the edge and winning through the top of the rush or the high side as a pass rusher that's where you'll really see issues especially with contact his footing starts to get out from underneath him or he doesn't have the best balance in those spots and then you'll also just see like he really loses speed trying to turn the corner at the top of the pass rush so he's obviously much more consistent in playing through offensive tackles and playing with more of that forceful style which again as we always say it's what the Lions say they're looking for that's what they want especially opposite Hutson they want a pocket collapser this is the Prototype pocket collapser as a defensive end he's just that like if you were like pocket collapsing defensive end he's not going to win every way but he'll collapse the pocket more of not because that's how he likes to play this is that piece for you especially when we get to some of the effort and things like that versatility and you'll see versatility in his footwork specifically in his strides the lateral stride depth that he is able to create especially on some of the stunt usage you also see the spin footwork and this is where I really like the control that he plays with where into his Dynamic kind of spin setup he's not out of control he stays balanced he fights through contacts contact really well he carries great contact balance which is huge um that's working through pass rush moves that's where you constantly see second third effort wins late wins where you're like why is he still getting after the quarterbacks like dude if you holding the ball at some point he's going to break through break break through he plays with Big Time effort but he plays with really good contact balance he keeps his feet underneath him he keeps his feet on the ground usually he's not caught in the air very often even though you'll see some flashes of trying to kind of have that little skip step or skip through pass rush attack he doesn't carry much Slither to go along with the flexibility this is where I didn't like him for Minnesota where they were standing him up over the center and they were having him like work between a center and guard I just didn't like it because he doesn't have that natural Slither to kind of split blocks and you'll see a lot of examples where he fails to split blockers or if he's trying to win inside he may use his hands but he doesn't actually create much separation from the offensive line they kind of just stick with him as they're opening up so even if he gets a win and gets himself clean they kind of just stick with him in his hip I don't like him in that spot I like him working on offensive tackles I like him a little bit more there or I like him when you try to get him one with a guard from an outside shoulder alignment right if he's trying to split a tackle and a guard because a tackle you can pull out with another resor or an offensive guard if you can get him one-on-one in the interior then that's a spot where I like the suddenness because he's explosive and consistent off the ball and when it turns into subpackage he's very good at getting off the line of scrimmage and just reading the ball and being very consistent there and then with those strides he's able to be very St sudden and explosive and very violent with his hands and he can get kind of those quick wins and then he shares that contact balance where even through the punches if an offensive lineman connects he still finds a way to kind of just gradually knock you back and walk you back to the quarterback and he's got that force of just a pure pocket collapser like you always talk about one of those guys are going to collapse the pocket from the interior we've looked from that from Pas he's shown us flashes I think he brings maybe the most consistent pocket collapser that we've seen to this point that we have seen to this point maybe someone else develops into that but so far I think he brings that to the table he also utilizes a nice little inside outside outside inside crossover move and again this is another one with the footwork where you can set this up he can create strides you want to see him be more proactive with his hands but in a play like this watch how fast he just comes to balance like we talked about earlier and then he's able to get that quick win he has a nice setup into this and it comes back to that discipline when he pushes vertical and also just setting up offensive tackle sets a little bit differently based on what he showed before he really plays off his own work really well now some of the knocks here to go along with that is predictable plans as a pass rusher and this comes really back to the hand usage where I think he gets very predictable and like this I'm going to try to win and then his hand usage doesn't seemly give you a lot of variety off that we'll talk about that a little bit more but you don't get a lot of like surprises it seems like as an offensive tackle I mean he'll definitely mix up his approach but it doesn't feel like he's throwing people off guard consistently and you'll get some predictability there starts to lose some of that burst trying to turn the corner on the edge now you get to a spot where he's not consistently winning that he's lying Tri to sit down and create an anchor and then again because of some of the lack of ability to consistently Slither inside on some of his inside pass for moves and guys are able to kind of stick with his hip there even if he gets that initial win he's not going to consistently finish and that's where you get more pressures than sacks in those spots so we have seen that and we've seen at times where you've had to flip him to opposite sides of the field to try to get some more win so again above average for me as a pass rusher but I think in terms of just like technically speaking he's not the most sound pass rusher but the pressure rate speak for themselves the effort is there and we'll talk about about that a little bit more but the biggest thing is that he's going to knock you back he's going to walk you back he creates excellent force and where he probably does his best tying his hand usage and his footwork together is actually bull rush attempts usually don't think of that but this ties his agility a lot better he squares up blocks he shows the dip then you're also going to see like these last steps into creating that force in Conta don't look at the Ben reps and be like man he's not going to create no Force this guy walks guys back constantly he's violently he's just very explosive from the ground and if he looks anything like he did with the New Orleans Saints he he's just going to consistently knock people back and then the contact balance because of that it opens up Variety in terms of stunts but it also just opens up late wins consistently now his play rength specifically as a run Defender but just in general this is there where I love him this is my highest grade to this point I just think he plays with excellent he plays with great play strength okay now there's inconsistencies here but I think he plays with great play strength just across the board and this is one of those things that you can kind of bet on with this player jolting players back at the point of top contact he can drop his weight at the point of contact as I already touched on his quickness in positioning getting a wide base a strong frame into contact to set the edge is very helpful for this as well I think he plays with putt plus pad level specifically when taking on polers like not only does he have the mentality to just take a polar head on like here comes the guard I'm stepping down I'm dealing with that not only as you have that but he also plays with good technique in those spots as well and just quickness short area quickness good balance wide base some of it was a little bit shaky I thought in 2023 where it didn't always feel like that for the most part you constantly feel that and that plays into the play strength as well he squares up his bull rush and you'll see it he doesn't carry maybe the best flexibility but he does carry some of the back bend he carries enough knee Bend he carries that force and momentum that he's able to create and then he plays with really locked in tight hands on contact where he just feels like he's just bench pressing guys he is just a handful for tight ends in terms of length the fast hands at the point of attack and just kind of the strength that he brings but even against tackles that ability to get very tight inside and create walk back and create come of that force on contact now when you talk about shed there examples where he doesn't shed as quickly or with tight Enders they'll hang with him too long and we'll talk about that but just terms of like getting that initial knot back that is something that's pretty consistent and he's very violent when he gets his feet in the ground and he's in a spot where he's not kind of rolling over this is where I think you get less consistency with like a long arm even though he has good length you don't always see long arm be consistent Because unless the traction's on point honestly I think playing Indo is going to help him I really do like like watching some of the games where the weather got bad it just felt like he was playing really slow honestly I think playing a door is going to help him speed him up hopefully that's the case we know New Orleans played in Dome I just feel like it helps him being in a good environment so I could be wrong but I think that's going to help him especially with his agility there because he's just so explosive I think it's going to help him that being said though I think because that you get some of the inconsistency with like long arm creation where he's trying to you know kind of create flexibility and lean into that even though you'll see some flashes but more so it's that ability when he can really transition drop his knees a little bit and create that like last second stride into contact that's where you get immediate force and that's what you see versus guards and things like that that's where he gets sudden because he is very threatening where he can knock knock you back but then he also has that explosion where press guards utilize a quick side step and then again continue to work through contact and just be a pocket collapser because for the inter you're not always looking for sacks you're just looking for guys that are going to Spill the quarterback and he can definitely do that so play strength to me I think he's great there it's my highest grade to this point over the hand use this was a tough one for me because I think it's better than what maybe thought of with Marcus Davenport but I don't think it's great I gave him an average grade in the spot right now but I still feel a little bit difficult on this one because at the beginning again I had a lower grade here I thought he was playing with wide hands at the initial punch especially against jump sets like that's something that he just didn't seem to have a great plan for again I think indoors will help him Outdoors just didn't feel like he had the agility to then do anything with it he didn't always have a great plan for dealing with jump sets or short setting offensive line that got in his chest early on the play and I don't think that was something that necessarily got better when I watched him and I thought his initial hands were a little bit messy that being said though would really stuck out to me as I continue to watch was I just feel like there was inconsistency with his footwork in his hand usage being on the same schedule you know like okay my feet want to go here but my hands are a little bit behind or I'm not finding the break point on this move as a pass rusher or I'm utilizing my hands but I'm not necessarily getting the contact and then my feet are just slow to kind of get behind even if my hands connect my feet my my feet don't allow me to actually clear an offensive lineman I just felt like things were a little bit inconsistent and being in unison I don't think that the ceiling is extremely high for that to actually be you know super polished up what you do like hear from hand usage I think he plays with very fast hands outside of specifically as a run Defender when one and this is more so for from shed but I'll just throw it out there now he leaves his frame open too much where he leaves his chest exposed guys kind of latch especially on the interior once they this is why he's not an offb linebacker let me say that right now to me he's not a linebacker he's a defensive end okay I want him getting contact a lot quicker I don't want him dealing with offensive lineman I don't love his shed ability once he start to ass move laterally I know I'm kind of peeking into the next category but I don't view him as much as a stand up walk around kind of linebacker maybe the L will I don't think that he's that I don't think that's where he's at his best that being said though he's very fast with his hands he's very reactive with his hands he's violent with his hands and he's also very good at kind of continuing to his hands and string moves together where he has variety you'll see the side swipes you'll see some swim move effect of this you'll see the inside punch with consistent tight hands in those spots you'll see variety there but he it's really that ability to continue to work and some of that's contact balance but it continue to work continue to work his hands through the Passover STP continue to fight off continue to battle the keep himself clean I think honestly that's the best aspect of his hand usage what I talked about with all this strength to me where he stands out the most here is specifically obviously he has kind of that bench pressing strength but it's really the core strength that's where he stands out to me I think he has very very strong very good core strength and that's where he is a problem for offensive lineman it's that ability to kind of jolt you around through the core I think that is where he's extremely strong as a pass rusher that's where he feels like he overwhelms guys and that can help him a lot in terms of just kind of creating force and some of his hand usage as well hand his hand swipes are consistently effective and then when setting the edge he does a nice job get getting an inside arm getting his inside arm out there quickly and utilizing his length now I think as the rep unfolds it's setting the edge at times he could be pushed too far up the field going back to shed times kind of issues getting back over the block but if he's initially just trying to set the edge and hold the edge and force you back inside that's something that he's very capable of to me it comes back more to his base in that spot and contining to reset through the rep that's where you get inconsistencies or it'll be a little bit slow in terms of some of the stiffness there and like rolling my hips to flip myself back around to the ball but just initial point of attack usually you have good handy usage in those spots again it's the issue of repositioning where he'll get himself where he almost feels like he's reaching and then that's where you can get like chop downs from an offensive tackle and it'll kind of throw off his balance and he feels like he's reaching more so than really digging in and and holding his ground where he's kind of popping up and he's like throwing his arm out there and then all of his weight starts to shift to his inside arm and that's real good issues just not really resetting his base to a consistent spot I think throughout the rep you want to find more ways to consistently just beat a jump set even if he can recognize it just consistently trying to tie his hand usage and footwork together to have more success in those spots rather than just getting lashed on that moves you on to the shed aspect is getting off blocks and as much as I kind of gave him some knocks there I actually gave him a better grade in this spot than hand usage I gave him a plus grade in this spot because a lot of that strength that he carries he's able to really bully tight end his point of attack I think he's going to see a lot of that work his twitched up footwork that's very proactive into contact ability to take on pullers it's kind of everything that he does before contact which I think allows him to be a very capable player in terms of creating shed especially as a run Defender issue here is where you ask him to get very rangy I think that's where problems come into play where you're asking him to work laterally you know you're asking him to stand up and work laterally and deal with blocks that's where I think you get issues you saw that with Minnesota you ask him to get ranging in terms of he set the edge flip back over your block now get back inside like if I'm asking him to bench press and kind of press into another Gap I think he's very capable of that if I'm asking him to hold his ground and then roll back over the block now I think some of the lack of agility throws back his ability to shed a little bit so I think it's also what you're asking of him in the spot I don't want to ask him have a ton of range in his spot even though he's a good athlete and he has that closing burst don't think that's where you consistently want him he does have finishing range which is different but in terms of just shedding I don't think you want to ask him to cover a whole bunch of range there and back to some of the hand usage here and also positioning through the rep instead of being content with this chucking Blocks Early in the play and being forceful instead maybe latching a little more and controlling the block through the rep to allow quicker shed opportunity you'll also see sometimes when he gets to the Back Field he he splits the Gap he doesn't always anchor himself down to just hold his ground instead you know he'll get to a spot where he'll kind of get propped up a little bit and naturally he's just on the taller side so it can be a battle for him to kind of deal with pad level consistently plays with so much force through his body that even in the interior when you see him ability to maintain a gap or hold Gap and a half or handle guards at the point of attack and you see that force that initial jolt that initial like hey I'm playing at the line of scrimmage you're not playing I'm not playing beyond the line of scrimmage I'm playing at or behind the line of scrimmage and then being able to kind of work through that if you ask him to handle a single Gap now his length becomes more effective you ask him to start to work really wide now his length becomes less effective that moves me to the area where I have his lowest grade which is agility at this point I'm below average here right now honestly I consider going even lower with this grade but I think there's things that he has does well here I talk about the ability to kind of shorten up his footwork in certain spots he also has some fluid footwork through pass rush moves it just kind of putting them together he'll see some good things within his footwork and also his foot quickness and he'll flash some nice body control here as well especially when you're on like the back side of contain you know kind of speeding up his footwork it's not always great in terms of getting himself up field just planning and sticking it's also not great in terms of immediately changing speed like hey I want to work like inside outside like it it it really takes some time for him to gather it feels like he does carry some burst now this is a p that I didn't plus that I didn't point out earlier which is he has this little hesitation move as a pass rusher where he can press you on the play like based on what he's already done in the past he can try to open up a tackle then he has this ability to kind of stop and holdt himself and then create a little bit of like a hesitation and then go again that's impactful and he can typically find a way to get an edge in those spots it's just about finishing which can be the problem dipping and ripping like that's not always great he does utilize the rip a lot but he's not always able to dip The Edge where he falls into issues here is he doesn't have that great agility kind of just stop and start you know put tackles kind of on an island and just make them work and be able to like shake them he doesn't play with good Shake he doesn't play with great Shake he doesn't play with a ton of lean either as a pass rusher his transitions from moving laterally to getting up field again the footwork can be there but it can be a little bit heavy if you ask him to consistently kind of change directions laterally I think that could be a problem then continuing to work down the line of scrimmage is just less fluid fluid as I touched about I think getting initially that first step is very consistent covers good good uh depth he's very reactive but as it continues to Roll Along Square in those spots going to turn a little bit it feels like more into a a a Chase rather than just staying square and just moving laterally down the line of scrimmage so it becomes a little bit less fluid in the spots but he does play with good recovery you see an athlete he gets off the ground very quickly he pops off the ground that's the kind of athletism that he carries but also the effort that he brings to the table it's that ability to carry some body control reset his footwork in spots high but for the most part there's a lot of things that do like about body control it's just like changing the record directions with a quickness and decisiveness that would really put tackles on skates like if he had that he would have pretty much everything you'd want from an edge rusher especially see it like in traffic where he's around a whole bunch of offensive linemen and he falls on the ground he can't really keep his keep his footwork or stay balanced through traffic you'll see it behind a line of scrimmage when he's dealing with a lot of traffic through through a step or you'll see with offensive line when he gets an edge especially on the interior when they kind of ride his hip even though he's able to deal with that contact balance to continue to just create a mess in the back field what he doesn't have is consistently the ability to finish and maintain his full workk and then you'll see him get tripped off he fall on the ground so you just don't see good agility within his game it's the lowest grade that I have right now I just think it limits him the other area which I don't love him either is flex flexibility and I think there's things that he does fine here at an adequate level but for the most part I don't love his flexibility one thing that I do think can be a plus is his upper body flexibility I think that does show up a little bit at times with some of that ability in the upper body create flexion it's just not really that much in lower body and that's where again even with the strides you just don't see him able to consistently close off or finish when he's able to get an edge or he wins he does have the hips to open and create some torque in his pass rush and that's where you get kind of that plant stick and press the quarterback you'll see him he'll kind of slide all around his feet seemly get slippery they kind of fall out from underneath him when he's trying to you know turn the top of the pass rush Arc kind of stiff when he seems to be working down the line of scrimmage where he's trying to kind of roll over the line of scrimmage that's not great I think it also limits him just getting over blocks in general um he doesn't the best hips to dip and rip the corner either he does have some knee Bend and twist and some flexibility here flat and kind of open himself up throughout his knees I think he does bring some flexibility there in the ankle some of that ankle flexion and strength there when trying to turn the corner can be a little bit of a problem it really shows up with the lack of Slither when you're talking about splitting guys in the interior I don't know why I put this in here but I did he played on the field goal block team too in 2022 I mean I don't know if that has anything to do with anything it really doesn't but you know I thought i' point out he maybe we get a guy that can block the field goals extra points that doesn't hurt they kind of wrapped thing up couple things that I still really like about his game first off closing ability really like his closing ability this is one of those players where you won't have issues with like is he his giving effort is he going to do that um especially if you look at anything from the Saints he looked like his hair was on fire all the time but even with the Vikings he plays with really good effort you're not going to have I don't think concerns about that whatsoever it's about him being on the field not is he going to try when he's on the field he will and if they get anything they got out of him from New Orleans which is because he's now with the staff and he feels more comfortable here and the role they want to ask him which again I think is going to be different than what they did with Minnesota he's going to be a problem because he plays with excellent effort it makes sense why the Lions would want a player like this because not only does he have that closing burst he has good length he has excellent closing range you know kind of when he's out in field he's a very forceful finisher I want to give this some credit too is that this is not a guy that's going to give up leakage all right he finishes through tackles he plays with a lot of power he wants to hit guys he is physical he hits you and he's not going to give much much after the c contact like it's not going to be with things where a running back he hits him one-on and he gets dragged back a couple yards if he gets a clean shot he is putting him down right there that being said though it's not always a clean shot the more he's in Space the less consistency you get because it feels like his lateral agility kind of falls off a little bit and then you don't get some of that you know great technique and form the further out in space The Wider you get him in coverage even though he's capable of dropping the coverage and doing some spot drops obviously you don't want him to live there he won't live there for us he can do it though he can get into spots and kind of just be impactful dropping into a position but the more in space you're going to get less consistency there just as as a finisher the path that he usually plays with to the quarterback he does a nice job of not overrunning the quarterback and over running the tackle now again some of that's like limited being able to turn the corner so he has to stop himself and kind of fight back in but you're rely going to see him just run beyond the quarterback outside maybe like a yard or two just because he tried to turn the corner and he couldn't for the most part though he doesn't just run by quarterbacks he does a nice job of kind of planting himself and fighting back into the play I think he plays with usually some good paths to the quarterback especially from the interior when he kind of has to just navigate traffic and you'll see him he plays with great Pursuit you saw with the Vikings where he's chasing around Mahomes you'll see things like that ball gets way away from him and he's constantly running into the play obviously has excellent open field speed and just a straight line with that 45840 time I actually thought he was a plus player in terms of the football intelligence I didn't know what to expect here I didn't know how I was going to feel about this because you think about where technically he's not always like where it's not always like the most elite you may expect this to be lower but I actually think he's a pretty smart player you know while at times you don't see him identify screen blocks at times you will see him identify screen blocks especially when he's in a comfortable position he's a nice pre- snap communicator as well which is noticeable on the defensive line um there was some issues with Minnesota and like just not knowing where to get lined up but I thought was New Orleans he was fine there so again if it's anything similar to that role which it probably will be which is there's not just putting you in one spot like yeah you're going to line up against left tackle most of the time but there's still flexibility here like you're going to line at a four technique you're going to go out to a out to a nine like you're going to play around you're going to move around different spots you're going to deal with tackle set on you're going to deal with tight end set on and you're going to to play with more in that range you saw some pre- snap communication there he just looked more consistent he will lose contain being a little bit aggressive as a pass rusher or not necessarily being proactive enough to get off his blocks and get in position to actually actually help on the play then he gets a little bit too far away and that's where the range can become a little bit of an issue he's smart on the backside he's smart with his backside contained he knows where his teammates are he plays off his teammates well like hey he's got the quarterback I can be aggressive and dive down here you'll get a little bit of over aggressiveness at times but again like bootlegs if he has the backside quarterback he handles that his first step usually is accurate so again it's like down the line of scrimmage so then he's able to create good balance and he's able to work towards the quarterback in spots like that carries flat rcks you'll see that as well you see multiple examples where a flat rout comes out you know pass rushes and there immediately he'll drop out and take away the initial look so linebacker and get over top like that's something that you see I think he's a plus player in terms of football intelligence obviously it's all about being healthy for Marcus Davenport that's where it starts that's where it's going to finish but if he is healthy and he does anything like we've seen him do over the time when just being on the field this is a guy I think he's going to be in for an extension for the Lions and this is the ideal number two for Hutchinson I think if you could build a guy that would be like the number ideal number two build for like what would be the great opposite pass rusher for Hutchinson this is that I think Pascal brings elements of that but he obviously brings flexibility where these guys could be on the field at the same time you could stand up Davenport you could put pass a little bit more on the interior you can do things like that I think he brings a little bit more interior presence right now from what we've seen as a pass rusher so I think he'd be better in that category than Pascal I think that's a real possibility but you could have him on the field together because there's flexibility for him to play out wide and you can kick Pascal in but I think he could also work on a four down front as like hey he's your opposite D end of Hutchinson he brings a ton of flexibility he played a lot of different roles but I think on paper he's the ideal opposite to Aiden Hutchinson as a pass rusher but also as a run Defender that's a smart player that plays with a fiery effort so here are my final grades that I came up with a couple things to note first off pass rush I slightly moved it up here I feel like I was a tad too low on pass rush with the consistency even though it's not always pretty the consistency does speak volumes also I moved his shed ability slightly down I had shed a little bit higher initially but I moved it slightly down because I do feel like the lack of range at times can be a tiny bit of an issue also where you put him and then finally body control and close I just put together body control kind of pulls it down close was a little bit higher but I think some of that lack of flexion and Agility really pulls back at times as ability to finish and create sack so I pulled that back a tad and then agility inflection two of my lower grades for this player put them together I thought about even going lower than that but I'm going to stick at the four right there finally the other thing I want to note is just because he's a little bit more of a buildup speed guy and you see that in the open field doesn't mean necessarily that he has to be a n technique that's super wide in the widest alignment like maybe with Minnesota or wherever even with New Orleans all the time or in a standup Rule and I think we got to see that he's capable of doing that but sometimes having the inability to turn the corner as well as he would like to means that I like him a little bit closer to the offensive tackle a little bit closer to the ball because then you get the tackle opportunity to sit himself down and really kind of stall out his bull rush which is typically his go-to and that's what he leans on as a pass rusher one note to the flexion where I pointed out his knee Bend that is an area where I think it helps him most in terms of just changing his path to the quarterback as a pass rusher and that's where you get that variety so when you talk about having that buildup speed I think it shows off the most successful when he crashes in from a defensive end position to work on guard so when he's crashing in where he can utilize a one to that second stride to really launch himself it takes really one stride for me for him to build up a lot of that momentum and force and some of that build up speed I don't think he needs a super long Runway consistently you see just enough from going from lining up over a tackle to getting on a guard and suback packages just not the most agile piece but you want a pocket collapser you got it so the competition's going to be real I like what we have behind it so if this doesn't necessarily connect for the Lions I like what they have in P school a lot obviously they had the guys like Betts this off season which are going to be really intriguing they have Houston coming back they have guys here but he has the monster upside he's shown it even when it doesn't look pretty and now you're working with the best defensive line coach according to Dan Campbell if anything becomes even more consistent here technically speaking the guy could absolutely take off I think he's going to be more comfortable here I'm buying into it I think Davenport it's my prediction now could be wrong but I'm going to say it I think Davenport earns an extension after this year with the Lions because I think he he's in for a big season with the Lions hopefully it's not like something ridiculous because we got to pay Hutchinson too but that would be an ideal onew to kind of put together and I think the Lions would love to see that and they know what he's capable of they didn't want him they wouldn't have signed him but they did so with that being said let me know your thoughts in the comments below thank you pra for watching and I'm out