Inside The Vikings

Vikings Rookie Wyatt Davis Had His 'Welcome to the NFL' Moment, Then Bounced Back

Davis showed off his upside after a tough start to his preseason debut against the Broncos.

Will Ragatz

The first play of Wyatt Davis's NFL career took him by surprise.

It was early in the second quarter of the Vikings' preseason opener against the Broncos, and they were already trailing 16-3. Davis, a third-round rookie from Ohio State, had just entered the game to replace veteran Dakota Dozier at right guard. Lined up across from him at defensive tackle was Shamar Stephen, an eight-year veteran with nearly 100 games under his belt, 83 of those with the Vikings. Stephen got his hands into Davis's chest and drove him five yards backwards into quarterback Jake Browning, creating an easy sack for a Broncos edge rusher.

That woke Davis up a little bit.

"It was a huge jump from college, definitely had my 'welcome to the NFL' moment my first play," Davis said on Monday. "Huge thing for me was just bouncing back from that."

It took a little bit of time for Davis to get acclimated and shake the rust off. He ceded ground to a Broncos DT on the ensuing play, and then watched the series end on a Browning pick-six. There were a couple other plays in the second quarter that Davis would like back as well. He had some issues with his pad level getting too high or missing with his initial hand placement.

"In the first series, I was getting the jitters out," he said. "After I started getting comfortable at my point of attack, I started getting back into my natural rhythm of things. That just comes with the game of football."

At Ohio State, Davis became known as one of the best interior pass protectors in college football. He was named a first team All-American in each of his last two seasons, dominating with physicality and athleticism. At OSU, he could frequently win with his physical tools alone.

It doesn't work like that in the NFL. You have to be sound in your technique every single snap and play with good leverage, or someone is going to make you pay.

"The biggest difference for me is everyone is as strong or stronger than you," Davis said. "That's my biggest thing. Really for me, it was just how much technique matters and working with coach Phil [Rauscher] every day and trying to sharpen my skills. Stuff I was able to get away with in college, you couldn't get away with that now. Working each and every day this week, trying to get better and learn from the mistakes I made in my first game. I'm still in the building process and I still got a lot to fix down the road."

After halftime, Davis settled down and began to play much better, particularly in the running game. He used his powerful frame to move defenders out of the way and showed off some of his mobility as well. It was a nice bounce-back effort for Davis, who had a solid training camp despite missing some time with an ankle injury.

When it was all said and done, Pro Football Focus gave Davis a 78.9 grade for the game, second-best of any Vikings player (center Mason Cole led the way at 85.0) and fifth-best among rookie offensive linemen across the league during Week 1 of the preseason. His 59.7 pass blocking grade reflects the up-and-down day he had in that area, while his 77.6 run blocking grade highlights his effectiveness in helping pave the way for A.J. Rose Jr.'s 100-yard outing.

The Vikings' focus when drafting Davis and Christian Darrisaw this year was to find players who possess the combination of size and strength and the athleticism required to play in their wide zone scheme. There's no doubt that Davis has all of that. There was a time when he was being discussed as a potential first-round pick due to his traits and all-around skillset, back before a knee injury hampered him in 2020 and contributed to his slide to the third round.

He's been brought along slowly by the Vikings, still sitting third on the depth chart at right guard behind starter Oli Udoh and Dozier. But with the veteran Dozier having an awful performance on Saturday — one that was right in line with his consistently poor play from all of 2020 — there's a clear opportunity for Davis to surpass him for the No. 2 gig and potentially push Udoh for a starting spot in the future.

Davis knows he has a long ways to go, but his preseason debut gives him a foundation to build on going forwards. Now he can watch the tape, see what he did well and didn't do well, and learn from it.

"Just being disciplined at the point of attack even when you're tired," Davis said. "That's something I've been focusing on as well with my practice — not letting my pad level get high. There were lots of good things to build off of from that game as well as some things that weren't good that I can fix. That first game gets all the rust off and now I'm looking to this week to have an even better performance, to shorten the list of mistakes that happened in this game."

Davis's next opportunity to prove himself at the NFL level will come on Saturday night against the Colts. Now that he's gotten his first game out of the way, the journey of his rookie season is fully underway.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

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