Jordan Davis is Quickly Becoming the Eagles’ Most Valuable Defender

Jordan Davis totally disappointed as a rookie. Even before his injury, he didn’t really have the impact we had hoped for when spending a first-round pick on him. And after the injury it was even worse.

But Jordan Davis has officially arrived, quickly developing into one of the Eagles’ most valuable defenders just two weeks into the season.

Jordan Davis Breakout

At 6-foot-6 and 340 pounds, you’d typically expect a guy like Davis to be a stout run-stuffer at the 1-tech defensive tackle position. And that’s really what we drafted him for. We had Fletcher Cox to get after the passer. We had Javon Hargrave. We have Jalen Carter. We can afford a weaker pass-rusher on the nose.

Davis clearly had other ideas.

Davis has sacks in back-to-back games to start the 2023 season, and even when he’s not getting home in time he’s totally ruining plays with his pressure. When you try to block him 1-on-1 on passing downs he’s going to shrink that pocket in a hurry. And that lets Carter and the edge rusher tee off.

And then there’s that brute-force play that we expected to see from him. He makes it look like aboslute child’s play to drive the center five yards behind the line-of-scrimmage and causing a three-man pileup to destroy a play.

Most tackles who can do this in run defense tend to be liabilities on passing downs. They tend to be too slow to get after the passer, and they end up being replaced with quicker tackles like Carter.

Davis being able to do it all makes him an incredibly tough player to defend against.

Offenses can’t rely on trying to create favorable personnel matchups by running the ball out of passing sets. The Eagles don’t need to worry as much about keeping their linebackers in the box against a potential run threat out of a passing set.

Davis wasn’t the high-impact rookie we thought he’d be, but Eagles fans will happily forgive him and welcome this sophomore breakout with full excitement.

looking to cash in on Davis’ breakout but worried about how the Eagles look so far? FanDuel’s $200 guaranteed bonus gives you as much of a sure-thing as you get from drafting a Georgia defensive tackle. Just sign up through the exclusive Section 215 link below, and your first $5 wager will unlock your full $200 bonus — regardless of whether your bet wins or loses. This offer won’t be around for long though, so sign up now to cash in before it expires!