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Survey every NFL locker room around for motivational quotes, and you’ll probably find “iron sharpens iron” as a popular choice. That’s because it’s true, with teammates on opposing sides of the practice field doing their best to improve one another every day.
That said, it might be easier for the New Orleans Saints to step up the degree of difficulty in training camp than other teams around the league. With All-Pro talents like running back Alvin Kamara matching up against linebacker Demario Davis, that’s bound to happen.
Kamara credited Davis in a recent media conference call, praising the team captain for being such a great player — and a challenging opponent in practice.
“Man, first of all Demario is one of the smarter players I’ve played against and with,” Kamara said, careful to point out that Davis has the smarts to match his speed. He added, “He’s athletic, he runs better than some of the guys on offense, honestly. It’s hard, going up against him you’ve got to be on your A-game. There’s not a lazy play you can take against him because he’s going to take advantage of your mistakes.”
Davis was a fine player before he arrived in New Orleans; Kamara recalled facing off with him as a rookie in 2017, when Davis started for the New York Jets. But the 31-year old linebacker has stepped up his game since joining the Saints, and Kamara attributes that to keen film study. The Saints have had great success pairing Kamara with Drew Brees as a mismatch target who can line up all over the field, but Davis has worked hard to neutralize those advantages.
“He’s tuned into alignments,” Kamara continued, “Demario can sometimes in practice, he could tell what I’m running from just like the smallest little split that I take. He’ll call it out like, ‘Oh, he’s wide’ or ‘He’s close to Drew’ or ‘Watch him, he’s looking this way, he’s looking left, he’s looking right’ or just little things like he’s pointing everything out.”
Iron sharpens iron in the NFL, and the opportunity for someone as dynamic and versatile as Kamara to practice and train against someone as intelligent and athletic as Davis should do a lot to make both players better. They’re set up for even more high-energy clashes when the Saints begin practicing in pads next week.
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