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The New Orleans Saints handled their Week 11 game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with ease, but did so largely without second-year pass rusher Marcus Davenport. The starting defensive end played just 23 snaps against Tampa Bay, with backup Trey Hendrickson appearing on 34 plays. That’s obviously not the kind of disparity Saints fans would hope to see out of that duo.
However, it makes sense in context of New Orleans’ game plan for the Buccaneers. Saints coach Sean Payton noted that his defense spent a lot of time in their sub-package with three down linemen rather than four. With Tampa Bay playing from behind for most of the game and dialing up so many dropbacks for Jameis Winston, the Saints responded by fielding more defensive backs than usual, which meant fewer opportunities for Davenport.
“Part of it was that a lot of our sub plan was out of a three-down look, so the rotation, if you’re playing four, it’s just going to be that many more snaps for the guys in the rotation,” Payton said. “A lot of it was just by, the three down sub package plan that we had.”
As for why more of the few snaps to go around went to Hendrickson rather than Davenport: consider each player’s skills set. Hendrickson is a quick-twitch pass rusher who bursts off the edge with great speed, and has several different arm-fighting moves at his disposal to disengage blockers. But he’s a relative lightweight for the position and can get bullied in run defense, lacking the sand in his pants to hold his ground against a 300-pound offensive tackle.
That’s not the case for Davenport, who is a prototype for an NFL defensive end. Much like teammate Cameron Jordan, Davenport is a naturally-gifted run defender thanks to his size, length, and agility. And also like Jordan, he’s taking some time to develop into an NFL-quality pass rusher. Jordan only had 9 sacks and 17 quarterback hits in his first two seasons, a stretch of 32 games. Davenport is already up to 7.5 sacks and 25 hits in his first 23 games. During his first 23 games, Jordan amassed just 4 sacks and 8 hits.
So there’s your answer: when forced into a pass-heavy game script, the Saints are going to give Hendrickson more opportunities thanks to his upside in those situations. When opponents are committed to remaining balanced on offense or showing the Saints looks that demand more of a four-down alignment, Davenport will get more chances. It’s not the ideal return on a player the Saints invested two first-round picks in, but it’s a reminder to fans that Davenport’s best football is still ahead of him.
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