Jarrad

Davis

Davis suffered a knee injury during OTAs that’ll cost him his 2023 season. He was re-signed by Giants this past offseason after coming onto the team in late 2022. The former first-round pick was looking to compete for playing time in a Giants’ linebacker room in need of more playmaking.

Davis opened the 2022 season on the Lions but was cut late into the season. The Giants then scooped him up and started him for the final week of the regular season plus both of their playoff games. Davis racked up 18 total tackles, one TFL, and .5 sacks in his three appearances with the G-Men.

Detroit inked Davis to a one-year deal following his short-lived stint with the Jets. The 21st overall pick in 2017, Davis has been unable to live up to his draft hype so far. His status as a former first-round pick should land him another gig, though it will only be as a backup. Davis earned 25 combined tackles in nine games with the Jets last year.

Davis was the 21st overall pick in the 2017 draft by the Lions but never lived up to his draft status and spent last season with the Jets after Detroit opted not to exercise Davis’ fifth-year option. The 27-year-old appeared in nine games for the Jets and is now headed back to the Lions to compete for a job.

Davis walked off the field under his own power, and then the cart came over to take him to the locker room. It has not been a good week health-wise for the Jets, who also lost star DL Carl Lawson for the year with an Achilles injury. Davis’ injury doesn’t appear as serious, although we’ll get more information after the game. He is questionable to return.

The Lions’ former No. 21 overall pick of the 2017 draft, Davis will likely start from day one in coach Robert Salah’s base 4-3 scheme. It’s purely a bet on talent for the organization as Davis, 26, was a below league-average player under Matt Patricia, most recently playing 29% of the team’s defensive snaps last year. He has a career 10.5 sacks.

Davis recorded 18 tackles and zero sacks prior to being sent to the team’s COVID list, additionally creating two forced fumbles. Detroit will send CB Tony McRae to injured reserve in order to make room for Davis on the active roster.

Playing all over the field this season, the No. 21 overall pick of the 2017 draft has been having by far the best campaign of his career after the Lions declined his fifth-year team option last spring. It’s unknown if any “close contacts” will have to join Davis on the COVID-19 list. Davis will be ineligible to suit up for this weekend’s game against the Vikings.

“I think JD is a cornerstone of what we’re trying to do, and he’s in those big-picture plans of where we’re trying to go,” Patricia said on Tuesday morning during a Zoom call with reporters. “Just (trying to) make sure we have the best season we can this year and then just go from there. And he’s, you know, JD is by far, he’s a solid (as a) rock leader. Everything-you-want-in-the-program type of guy.” The Lions recently declined the former No. 21 overall pick’s fifth-year team option for 2021, but it sounds as if the organization is holding out hope for a potential breakout in the final year of his rookie deal. The 25-year-old was Pro Football Focus’ No. 72 linebacker out of 83 qualifiers last year, missing five games with an ankle injury. Despite Patricia’s comments, Davis would undoubtedly have to record a hellacious season to re-sign with the team.

Davis was taken 21st overall in the 2017 draft, the year before coach Matt Patricia was hired, so he doesn’t exactly have ties to this coaching staff. The off-ball linebacker has made minimal impact through three seasons, appearing in 41-of-48 games while producing just one interception, five forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, and 10 sacks. He had an outlier six-sack 2018. Davis was Pro Football Focus’ No. 72 linebacker out of 83 qualifiers last season. He was third in missed tackles as a rookie and sixth the following year. Davis likely would have been up there in 2019 if not for missing five games to an ankle injury.