Raekwon Davis | DL | Alabama
Elevator Pitch
A lengthy, powerful and athletic interior defensive lineman, Davis has plenty of physical upside and can be a quality starter as either a 3-tech or a 5-tech defensive lineman. There’s a chance he could fall with the top-end talent in this year’s defensive line class, but he could be a solid Day 1 starter with plenty of potential to grow.
Vitals
Height | 6-6
Weight | 311
Strengths
The first thing that stands out about Davis is his physical attributes.
Davis has great length, long arms and a well-built frame that carries plenty of good weight on it. He has plenty of raw strength in his game, as he packs a powerful punch at the point of contact and has shown the force in his frame to physically overwhelm a lot of the offensive linemen he goes up against. He does a good job of eating up gaps as a run defender, making it tougher for opposing ball-carriers to identify a hole in between the tackles. The drive he plays with in his lower body allows him to drive back the opposition and collapse the pocket.
In addition to his power, Davis also plays with athleticism and finesse. He accelerates well off the snap and has impressive short-area quickness for his size. He has good range as a tackler in the open field, and he’s surprisingly good at changing direction for someone as lengthy as he is. His hands also possess that quickness, as he has shown the ability to swipe and clear the hands of opposing blockers. Arguably the best move in his arsenal is his swim move, in which he utilities a powerful jab and a quick and polished arm-over to beat his man more often than not.
Weaknesses
For all of his athletic tools, Davis is still a bit of a work in progress from a technical perspective. As one would expect for a taller defender, he struggles a bit with maintaining ideal pad level and sinking his hips at the point of attack. This prevents him from generating optimal power and maximizing his full potential on a down-by-down basis. He’s much more of an interior presence than a playmaker, and he could get better at finishing plays. His hand usage can run hot and cold, as he can blow up a play on one down and be completely neutralized because of a lack of strong counter moves in his arsenal the next.
Davis was a three-year starter on a dominant Alabama defense, but his production fell off every year he was in the starting lineup. He had 8.5 sacks in 2017, but he combined for just three sacks in the following two seasons. His tackle for a loss numbers went down each year too, as he put up 10 in 2017, 5.5 in 2018 and 3 in 2019. There have reportedly been some concerns about his maturity, so scouts will have to figure that out before drafting him. He was also shot in the leg by a stray bullet in 2017, which teams will also look into.
Projection: 2nd Round
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