The two big bodies have been feeding off of each other so far.
In one of the last media sessions before a summer break, the tallest Miami Dolphins defender, Raekwon Davis, spoke in a short and sweet way to South Florida reporters.
Standing at 6-foot-7, the Alabama product was a second-round selection in the 2020 NFL draft and 56th overall. A commanding force in the middle of the defensive line, Davis had a solid rookie season tallying 40 tackles, a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit.
2021 started with a scare for Davis, as he went down with a scary-looking injury in Week 1 against New England, forcing him to miss the following three games. Returning sooner than many initially thought, Davis continued his solid play and finished the season with 28 tackles and his first career half-sack.
Consistently double-teamed, Davis has helped teammates statically and, of course, as a whole for the Miami front-seven. Davis has a higher value than his numbers indicate, and he himself referenced that to reporters.
“Yeah, that’s definitely a goal to get my stats up,” he said. “But I’m not too worried about that right now. I’m focused on getting better this offseason and that’s about it.”
Davis had a chance to publicly share his opinion, like a number of his teammates, on his new head coach, Mike McDaniel.
“He’s a funny guy,” Davis said. “He’s got a lot of character; he’s just hilarious.”
A component that McDaniel has brought to the Dolphins is the bestowing of the coveted orange practice jersey. A reward Davis recently received.
“It wasn’t nothing special,” he said humbly. “Just effort. Running to the ball. I’m just an effort guy.”
Moving to discuss a new teammate, and one that he sees a lot of in practice is newly named potential-starting-center, Connor Williams. The free agent from the Dallas Cowboys was advertised as a penciled-in left guard, but news has him as the front runner for Miami’s man in the middle of the offensive line.
Davis gave his eye-witness account of Williams’ progress.
“He’s been great,” Davis said. “We’ve been going back and forth and really competing and challenging each other every day. He’s been pushing me, I’ve been pushing him. It’s kind of like a fair match right now.”
Heading into year three, Davis is part of a rotation of defensive linemen that seems to be the deepest in a number of years for the Dolphins. With players like Christian Wilkins and Zach Sieler on the interior, mixed with pass-rushers Emmanuel Ogbah and Jaelan Phillps, Davis was asked about the defensive continuity heading into the season.
“It helps us a lot,” he said. “Everybody knows each other, we know what to expect, we know the goals. It’s a blessing to have everybody back.”
When asked more about his fellow linemen and how they set the tone up front Davis said, “Pushing each other, competing as a unit, sticking together, everybody on one head. That’s it.”
Then a question was asked about the pressure on this unit, being that everyone is back this season. Davis kept that answer as short as possible saying, “No. We know the goals. We know what we’ve got to do.”
Pulling the thread a tad more, Davis was then asked what those goals are.
He closed by saying, “Just competing. That’s it.”
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