All-Twenty Tuesday: UTSA EDGE Marcus Davenport

Every year we seem to have that prospect we’ve never heard of until the Senior Bowl and from the moment they step on the scale to get their measurables, we’re intrigued and have a desire to find out more of who they are and how they went under the radar for so long. A few Senior Bowls ago that was pass rusher Ezekiel Ansah, and just last year it was a player named Tanoh Kpassagnon.

This year that prospect is UTSA (University of Texas San Antonio) pass rusher Marcus Davenport. Davenport has been on some scouting department’s big boards and even mock drafts from a few months back, but it wasn’t until NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah put Davenport at the No. 7 spot (yes, to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) in his latest mock draft that people really started to dig into this kid.

So, who is he?

Well, for starters, he’s almost 6-foot-6, 259 pounds. He has the wingspan of an NBA player and good hand size, too. Davenport was a three-year starter and four-year contributor for the Roadrunners (yes, the mascot is the Roadrunners *meep meep*). Davenport recorded 21.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss in his career and had a steady increase in production in each of his four season as his playing time and importance increased. Davenport is often listed as a defensive end, but most of his tape shows him playing a 3-4 outside linebacker position. He can play both, and though his tape says he’s a stand-up linebacker, most project him to be a 4-3 defensive end.

So, how did he get to UTSA? Davenport is from San Antonio, so playing at UTSA meant he could play close to home. Davenport said UTSA wasn’t his first choice, but it was the school that believed in him the most and the one he felt most at home once he met the coaching staff and his teammates. Though Davenport has been playing for four years, where he is as a prospect is still decently raw – he said he didn’t even think the NFL was possible for him until recently.

I popped in six games of Davenport, a few from 2016 but most from 2017. What immediately jumped out to me in the 2017 tape is how violent his hands are. When he’s getting into offensive linemen, he’s being violent with his hands on the inside of their chest and knocking them back or off balance. He times that well with a good drive in his legs, and that’s what allows him to collapse a pocket with power.

Weighing 259 pounds isn’t a bad weight for an edge player, especially for a player who is doing most of their work from a stand-up position. However, with Davenport being 6-foot-5, that 259 pounds is distributed in length rather that condensed in his lower or upper body. That gives players a potential power risk, something we’ll get to later. However, when he gets going and those hands get to be violent, he can move people.

It’s impressive how aggressive Davenport is. When you watch players like Joey or Nick Bosa, the thing that should jump out right away with them, too, is how effective their hands are. But, those two have heavy hands; it’s almost like they’re hitting offensive linemen with bricks. Davenport has effective hands, but they’re not heavy, they’re just a different style of violent.

Something that aids Davenport in the violent use of his hands is how he uses his leverage to get offensive linemen up and off balance. In the clip directly above, even more so than the ones before it, Davenport was able to get up and under the offensive lineman’s leverage and could then fight with his hands to move the offensive lineman off his heel and onto his toes (there’s no balanced power on your toes).

Davenport’s hand usage and effectiveness via violence is the best part of his game right now. When rushing the passer, Davenport had success in this manner versus Power 5 and non-Power 5 offensive linemen. Despite playing in Conference USA, the Roadrunners had games against Kansas State, Texas A&M, Baylor and Arizona name a few if the Power 5 foes they faced.

An important part of being a pass rusher is being able to get off blocks. That doesn’t always come in the same style. Some players get off blocks via power with push backs and throwing their opponent off of them. Others are more finesse with spin moves and swim moves.

Though Davenport said that getting off blocks better is the thing he most wants to improve on a a pass rusher, he did it pretty well on tape against the competition he went up against. Davenport does know how to use some pass rush moves, though they aren’t as refined as they could be. In the clip above, Davenport ripped off his block once he saw the quarterback climb up the pocket and was still able to get the sack.

In the play above, Davenport didn’t show elite bend, but enough for a 6-foot-5 player to be able to rip up and under the offensive tackle’s arms for the sack. That was a great play from Davenport. It showed a good awareness of how to attack his offensive lineman, good success in the move he chose and was ultimately able to finish the play.

Davenport has also shown glimpses of a spin move when he’s speed rushing and wants to get back inside, but that one seems to still be a work in progress.

So, we know Davenport has great, violent hands and because of that has shown he can develop some pass rush moves to go with them. But, now I want to point out an area of his game that worries me.

You might be thinking it’s odd to show the clip directly above to start a criticism section, but stay with me. When Davenport gets a jump on the snap like that, he can do things that almost look Jadeveon Clowney-esque with acceleration and power going in a straight line (ATTENTION: THIS IS NOT ME SAYING HE’S JADEVEON CLOWNEY). When Davenport can time things right and get momentum going, he’s a very nice pass rusher. However, without those moments, he tends to get bullied, and I’m not just talking about against offensive linemen in the run game. I mean by tight ends and running backs, too.

I see plays like the one above quite a bit in Davenport’s tape – or at least more than I’d like to see it. Like I said before, when Davenport can get a jump and get going, he has translatable power to move people, but when he’s caught off guard or doesn’t get a good jump, he gets bodied. Better yet, he fails to anchor.

Most 4-3 defensive ends can take contact, get knocked back a step, but then gather, anchor and push back. With Davenport, when he gets hit without momentum, it’s often two, three or four steps back before he can gather, get around and move back to where he needs to be. I worry about how naturally strong he is or can hold up.

Getting knocked that far back off the line of scrimmage worries me, because it’s not like the play above was a one time thing. Even during the first day of the Senior Bowl, Davenport really struggled early on just holding his own at the point of attack without momentum to help him. He doesn’t seem to have that power in his lower body to sit down on his heels when he needs to anchor.

That’s more of a defensive tackle trait, yes, but when you’re playing as a 4-3 defensive end, if you want to be more than a situational pass rusher on third down – meaning if you want to be taken with the No. 7 overall pick – you have to be able to play all three downs. We’ll see how Davenport fares as the week progresses.

Right now, I don’t see Davenport as a player I can trust to play all three downs in most situations, and unless he does something spectacular this week, he’s probably not going to be worth taking at No. 7 from a value standpoint – even though 4-3 pass rushers in are demand and there is a shortage this year in free agency and the draft.

I think there is a lot to like about Davenport. I think his hand usage and violence is great. I think he’s developing some pass rush moves and generally has good snap anticipation. However, he’s not the run defender he needs to be as of right now, and even though I think his best football is in front of him, taking him in the Top 10 would be way too rich for my taste. I see him more as a mid-Day 2 pass rush player for a 3-4 team. He has to get stronger in his lower body to be able to be a reliable 4-3 defensive end. I like the idea of him playing with his hand in the ground to help with his pad level, but run fits would worry me. Davenport is not a guy you draft and expect to have more than four sacks as a rookie. He’s much closer to being a work-in-progress guy than a finished product.