6th Round Draft Choice: Will Davis - DE - Illinois - 6′2″ 261 lbs.
And the Arizona Cardinals take yet another defensive player again, in the 6th round. Ok, we can hear the coaching staff loud and clear on this, we couldn’t get the stop on that last drive of the super bowl. You have one camp that says, “Defense Wins Championships”, you have another camp that says, “Special Teams Win Championships”. Whatever, all I know is we came up about a hair short of taking home the Lombardi Trophy and it’s because the D didn’t get the stops at the end of the game.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, it all starts in the trenches my fellow football fans. You either protect the quarterback or you get to the quarterback. So here we have Will Davis, and I hope he can bring some heat on opposing QB’s this season. The Cardinals finished up tied for 14th in the league for team sacks, but they only had a paltry 31 sacks total. That is not good enough for a defense in my opinion, it’s real simple, they just aren’t putting enough pressure on the QB. OK, we have that out of the way. I see Will Davis as something of a tweener just like our second round draft pick, Cody Brown. Not quite big enough for true defensive end but a little more bulk than a typical linebacker.
Which again leads me to believe that the Cardinals will really try to implement more of the 3-4 defense this season. The 3-4 only works good if you have the exact personnel that can pull it off, and especially being able to apply pressure from the edges. A former wide receiver and tight end, Davis has good quick feet. His initial burst is ok and nothing spectacular and his straight-line speed is also decent. He didn’t drop to the second day of the draft for nothing.
Stats for Last Two Years at Illinois:
- 2008 - 7 tackles for loss - 3.5 sacks
- 2007 - 12.5 tackles for loss - 9.5 sacks
You can see he had a real drop off in production in 2008 as compared to 2007, probably attributed to some nagging ankle injuries. Some of the things I like about Davis are his abilities to force runners to the outside and neutralize inside running lanes allowing containment pursuit. He has decent lateral coverage and makes a good effort on the pursuit. His lower body strength is just adequate from what I’ve seen and his upper body strength is not one of his strong points as well. Because of the lack of overall strength it has been easy for offensive lineman to hook into him and take him right out of the play early. His coverage skills are almost nill and he basically just relies on his speed to rush the passer.
- 40 Yard Dash : 4.94 seconds
- Bench Press : 27.0 reps
- Vertical Jump : 33.0 inches
- Broad Jump : 115.0 inches
- 3 Cone Drill : 7.38 seconds
- 20 Yard Shuttle : 4.45 seconds
That doesn’t cut it in the NFL, it might for awhile but you have to have technique instilled into you. The thing I do like about him is that he plays well within his system and doesn’t try to be a freelancing kind of guy. I think that’s what caused Rey Maualuga’s draft stock to drop from 1st to 2nd round. So what we have in Will Davis is a raw athelete that is going to have to work with strength and conditioning coach John Lott, and work to add some much needed bulk and strength. Hopefully with some good work, Davis can help put some heat on opposing QB’s this season and we’ll end up with more than 31 sacks this year.
Tags: cardinals draft picks, will davis