New Vikings Defender Named as Possible First-Time Pro Bowler in 2023

Former Saints first-round pick Marcus Davenport has an opportunity to put together his best season this year.

2023 is a prove-it year for Marcus Davenport.

The former Saints first-round pick had five solid years in New Orleans, but never quite lived up to the expectations that come when you're selected 14th overall. Although his pressure rates and PFF grades were consistently strong, Davenport's sack totals fluctuated wildly — and that's what pass rushers tend to be judged on. He finished his Saints tenure with 21.5 sacks in 63 games (32 starts), ranging from 9.0 in 2021 to just 0.5 last season.

As a first-time free agent, Davenport — who turns 27 in September — signed a one-year, $13 million deal with the Vikings. Instead of securing a long-term contract, he took a prove-it deal that sets him up for a sizable deal next spring if he has a big season.

With Za'Darius Smith gone, the opportunity will be there for Davenport in Minnesota. He'll be used all over the front in new coordinator Brian Flores' defense and should easily surpass his career high of 533 snaps, as long as he can stay healthy. Davenport has the talent to put together a season similar to his excellent 2019 and 2021 campaigns, but with higher snap volume. If that happens, could he make his first career Pro Bowl?

Sports Illustrated's Conor Orr thinks so, naming Davenport recently as one of ten possible first-time Pro Bowlers heading into this season.

Davenport is my major sleeper this year, much like (Haason) Reddick was last year. The 2018 first-round pick of the Saints has never logged more than nine sacks or 16 quarterback hits in a season, both of which I think he can surpass in Brian Flores’s defense this year. Davenport will slide into the position vacated by Za’Darius Smith, who had 10 sacks and a Pro Bowl nod last year. Davenport will have the gifted Christian Darrisaw (another player who is certainly worth considering for a first-time Pro Bowl nod) to work against daily and a heightened focus on Flores’s ability to create confusion and simulate pressure from other areas of the field. Davenport won’t have the fully loaded deck of star pass rushers to work off like he did in New Orleans, but the change in scenery will help him bloom (and hit the ’24 free agent market with a bang).

It's not too difficult to imagine a world where Davenport benefits from Flores' scheme and blossoms into a star in his first season with the Vikings. However, if Danielle Hunter is eventually traded, offenses will be able to hone in on Davenport on a down-to-down basis, which will make that task much tougher.

If I had to pick a Vikings first-time Pro Bowler this year, I'd go with Darrisaw without hesitation, but I definitely understand the case for Davenport getting there.

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