2022 NFL Draft Prospect Profile: DL Jordan Davis, Georgia

The Giants will probably be looking for defensive line depth. Can they find something worthwhile in Georgia DL Jordan Davis?

Jordan Davis, DL

Height: 6’6
Weight: 340
Class: Senior
School: Georgia

 A former three-star recruit out of Mallard Creek High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, Davis was the 29th ranked defensive line recruit in the 2018 cycle and the 15th recruit out of North Carolina.

Davis is a first-round talent with rare size and run-stuffing ability. He returned to Georgia in 2021 and helped bring Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs a championship title.

Notables

Davis was the 2021 Outland Trophy winner, the 2021 Chuck Bednarik Award winner, and a first-team All-American selection. He was also a finalist for the 2021 Bronko Nagurski and Lott IMPACT Trophies (won by Will Anderson of Alabama and Aidan Hutchinson of Michigan, respectively).

Davis is a mammoth of a man in the interior part of the defensive line. He had 32 tackles, 5 for a loss, and two sacks with 14 pressures in 2021; he also had 22 STOPS. He finished his career with 90 tackles, 11.5 tackles for a loss, and seven sacks.

His stats don’t truly show his impact on the football field; he frequently commanded double teams and occupied blockers to allow his linebackers to remain unscathed. Davis may find himself as a first-round selection.

Strengths

• Elite size, wingspan, and length for DL
• For his size, he possesses solid athletic ability
• Good balance for a man of his size
• Solid first step off the snap
• Has solid lateral step combined with use of hands to create separation
• Elite play strength and grip strength
• Eats double teams and is immovable on the line of scrimmage
• Good luck moving him in 1v1
• Sticking power is excellent with violent hands to shock/shed
• The best run defending DL in the class
• Wins with brute strength and has solid technique to shed
• Establishes contact, maintains length, and violently discards attempted blocks
• Good processing and vision to see through trash and find the ball carrier
• Uses strength well as a pass rusher
• Very good bull-rush move, explodes low to high, and drives OL backward
• Difficult in 1-gap system, can effectively be a two-gapper who absorbs space and wins with power
• Is more than a space absorber - can push the pocket from the interior

View all of Nick Falato's draft prospect profiles right here / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Can Improve

• Lack of elite production in college
• Solid AA for size, but leaves some to be desired in this area when looking at other DL in the draft
• Not overly flexible, struggles to bend through half-man if he doesn’t win with strength
• Doesn’t have pass rush plan
• His game is predicated on strength
• He’s not terrible technically but it’s not his strength either
• However, that does leave room for growth!
• Not too adept with hand counters as a pass rusher
• Only played 378 snaps
• Was pulled in obvious passing situations - much more of a two-down player
• Fatigue was an issue in college which led to questions about his competitive toughness and conditioning

Summary

Overall, the Georgia defense is full of defensive talent - at least eight could go in the top 100. Davis doesn’t have the pass-rushing upside like his teammate Devonte Wyatt or Trayvon Walker, but he can bull-rush and disrupt the pass marginally for a man of his size. 

He is an elite run defender who can be a pivotal piece of some defensive schemes upfront. He doesn’t have to be relegated just to play nose; he has the versatility to play in EVEN fronts and align as a 4i-technique on some run downs to create a blocking disadvantage for the offense. 

There’s still room to improve certain parts of his game, but, simply put, there aren’t many humans who can move the way he moves. He may find his way into the first round in the 2022 NFL Draft.

GRADE: 6.7 

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