AsylumGuido

Saints expecting more from Marcus Davenport

The Saints traded up to take defensive end Marcus Davenport in the first round of the 2018 draft and that move was starting to pay dividends last season.

Davenport had three sacks and two forced fumbles in wins over the Panthers and Falcons in Weeks 12 and 13 last season, but the surge ended against the 49ers in Week 14. That’s when Davenport suffered a Lisfranc injury that brought his season to an end.

Saints defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen said that Davenport has “done the best that he can with his rehab” this offseason. He added that the team is looking for a big step forward as a result of the work that he’s put in since getting hurt.

“Every time I talk to him, he’s saying all the right things, he’s doing the right things,” Nielsen said, via NOLA.com. “It’s Year Three. Yep, we expect more from him, as we do with everybody else. I’m excited to start working with Marcus, but there is some growth and there’s some things that we’ve just got to do a little bit better and we’ll work on that.”

The production that Davenport flashed in his final work of the 2019 season would work well for the Saints on a regular basis and figuring out a way to make that happen should be a priority in New Orleans once camp starts this month.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

AsylumGuido

Saints 'expect more' from DE Marcus Davenport in third season

In 2018, the New Orleans Saints sold the proverbial farm to snag raw but talented Marcus Davenport. Injuries, however, have curtailed the defensive end from living up to the promise so far.

A turf toe injury relegated him to 13 games and 4.5 sacks during his rookie season. Last year, the pass rusher started 13 games, tallying six sacks. While he started slow, the young rusher began to come on strong. In Weeks 12 and 13 against division foes (Carolina and Atlanta), Davenport compiled three sacks, seven tackles, two tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. Then, as his luck would have it, he suffered a Week 14 Lisfranc injury that ended his year.

Heading into Year 3, the Saints expect the young edge rusher to be back at full force and improve in 2020.

"He definitely has room to get better and it's there, the potential and the growth is there," Saints defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen said, via The Times-Picayune. "I think he made a big step last season. There's some games where he was playing lights-out.

"Talking to him, I think his confidence is better this offseason. He's working hard and I know he had a couple of injuries, but he's put the work in."

Nielsen noted that if healthy and motivated, Davenport owns the talent to be a disruptive difference-maker on a deep Saints defense.

"Every time I talk to him, he's saying all the right things, he's doing the right things," Nielsen said. "It's Year 3. Yep, we expect more from him, as we do with everybody else. I'm excited to start working with Marcus, but there is some growth and there's some things that we've just got to do a little bit better and we'll work on that."

A healthy Davenport would make the Saints' already stellar defense even more scary-good. With perennial powerhouse Cameron Jordan and him coming off the edge, one will be single-blocked each drop back. Trey Hendrickson is a stellar third rusher. If Sheldon Rankins returns healthy, he'll team with David Onyemata in the middle to form a stout front. Linebacker Demario Davis is an underrated speeding bullet who patrols the entire gridiron. Third-rounder Zack Baun can upgrade the linebacker crew and owns the ability to rush the passer when asked. The secondary boasts Marshon Lattimore and Janoris Jenkins on the outside with safeties Malcolm Jenkins and Marcus Williams.

On paper, the Saints own the best roster in the NFL. The defense would be that much better if Davenport returns healthy. If he can replicate the impact he had in his final two games of 2019, New Orleans will finally have that matching bull opposite Jordan for which it's been so desperately searching.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

The Dude

Then there’s this

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl...ic/ar-BB16imMg

AsylumGuido

Which has that to do with what the Saints are expecting from Davenport?

The Dude

If we are going to see more from him it’s looking more and more like it will be in 2021.

AsylumGuido

That is for all the people planning to not watch the NFL this season. Personally, I expect to see a lot of him playing this season.

AsylumGuido

Saints D-line coach says Marcus Davenport 'definitely has room to get better' even after strong second season

In 2017, the New Orleans Saints came extremely close to taking a trip to the NFC title game, losing to the Minnesota Vikings on a last-second miracle pass from Case Keenum to Stefon Diggs. A few months later, the Saints traded two first-round picks to move up and select University of Texas-San Antonio pass rusher Marcus Davenport with the No. 14 overall pick, hoping that his dynamism on the edge would help push the team over the top.

Davenport struggled a bit with injuries during what was still a solid rookie season, but played only 51 snaps in New Orleans' two playoff games, the second of which was another heartbreaking loss, this time to the Los Angeles Rams. Davenport came back healthy for his second season and took a nice step forward, starting all 13 games in which he appeared and picking up six sacks, five tackles for loss, three forced fumbles, and 16 quarterback hits. He got injured again down the stretch, though, and didn't appear in New Orleans' playoff loss to (again) the Vikings.

Heading into Year 3, the Saints have high hopes for Davenport's future.

"He definitely has room to get better and it's there, the potential and the growth is there," defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen said, per The Times-Picayune. "I think he made a big step last season. There's some games where he was playing lights-out. Talking to him, I think his confidence is better this offseason. He's working hard and I know he had a couple of injuries, but he's put the work in."

If his overall production is any indication, Davenport is already among the most efficient edge rushers in the league, even with a relatively moderate sack total. He ranked 15th out of 93 edge rushers who played at least 25 snaps per game last season in my Weighted Overall Win Rating (WOW Rtg) metric, which adjusts a player's sack, hit, hurry, and run stop totals (via Pro Football Focus) to gauge how much more often than the league average player they produce one of those results.

Davenport's WOW Rtg of 125.9 in 2019 was on par with players like Calais Campbell, T.J. Watt, and Von Miller, and indicates that he was 25.9 percent more likely than the average edge rusher to produce a sack, hit, hurry, or run stop on any given snap.

See here for WOW Rating list and rest ...

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

SmashMouth

If he can just live up to his draft status, and that includes the trades to get to him...

SaintFanInATLHELL

I think it's unfair to put that on the player. Just because the Saints traded up for Davenport doesn't mean that his talent level is any higher than where he was actually selected. The expectations for Davenport should be where he was selected (14th) and not what the Saints had to do to get to that position to make the selection.

Davenport has been disruptive and productive. What he hasn't been is available. My only hope is that he can last an entire season.

SFIAH

Rugby Saint II

Davenport is a dynamic disruptive player when he's healthy. Injuries are his only negative. I am excited to see what he can do in his third year. He's so much fun to watch him leaving it all on the field. That boy has no quit in him. I've seen him run across the field to make a tackle and look like a ballerina getting to the QB dancing around blocks.

Eventually, we won't care about the cost for drafting him. Besides, it's not his fault that we invested that highly in him. Don't blame the player for where he was picked. He had no control over that and he's a hard worker. Remember, Ingram was banged up his first couple of years and then got healthy. I'm hoping that will hold true for Davenport as well.