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Jordan Davis landed on the 2022 NFL Draft stage in Las Vegas wearing a black suit adorned with a diagonal red stripe, representing his proud college colors at the University of Georgia. He’s going to need to change that stripe to midnight green. And he can’t wait to do it.
The Philadelphia Eagles selected Davis with the 13th overall pick in Thursday’s draft. They jumped up two spots to get the 6-foot-6, 341-pound defensive tackle in the first round after sending No. 15, No. 124, No. 162, and No. 166 to the Texans for No. 13. Davis was clearly their guy the whole time, a move largely applauded by the masses on social media.
And now the winner of the Chuck Bednarik Award and Outland Trophy will be wearing a midnight green jersey while playing alongside Fletcher Cox, a player the North Carolina native grew up watching and admiring. Life can be funny that way.
“I’m excited. I’m ready to get to work,” Davis told NFL Network seconds after getting drafted. “I’m ready to get in there and give everything I can to Philadelphia, my new home, I’m ready to get there. Yeah, definitely, midnight green is going to look great on me. I’ve been watching Fletch ever since I started playing ball so it’s going to be great to learn from the best. So, I’m ready to just get out there and soak it all in like a sponge.”
The irony of it all is that Davis was drafted to be Cox’s successor in Philly. The Eagles brought their All-Pro defensive tackle back on a one-year, $14 million this offseason. His main job in 2022? To mentor Davis and make sure one of the best run-stuffers in college football turns into a dominant interior pass rusher.
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NFL Scouting Combine MVP: Athletic Freak
Davis was a part-time player last year at Georgia and saw action on just 38% of their defensive snaps. He finished with 2.0 sacks and 32 total tackles in 15 games. Yes, the young defensive tackle is very much a work in progress. But the scouts love this “beefy, mountainous nose tackle” who wowed everyone at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Davis ran the 40-yard dash in 4.78 seconds which is an unreal time for a 341-pounder. He also posted a 32-inch vertical leap and 128-inch broad jump along with a 10-yard split of 1.68 seconds. Translation: Davis is an athletic freak. He is a physical specimen taller than Rob Gronkowski, heavier than Jason Peters, and faster than Patrick Mahomes.
‘Beefy, Mountainous Nose Tackle’ Comes to Philly
Scouts were running out of superlatives to describe Davis after his Combine performance. Prior to that, there had been major concerns about his “agility and reactive quickness” (via NFL Media’s Lance Zierlein).
He easily stopped rushers dead in their tracks in college with his sheer size alone, but he wasn’t asked to rush the quarterback too much. That’s going to change in the NFL. Can he do it? Time will tell.
“Beefy, mountainous nose tackle with the size, power and will to clog the drain and alter the offense’s desire to run between the tackles,” wrote Zierlein. “Davis won’t be as effective against outside-zone teams and won’t offer much rush, but he could become one of the league’s best run-pluggers as soon as he takes the field.”
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