Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio has never been known to mince words and opinions, and he did just that on Thursday during a Week 1 assessment of Jamin Davis that was honest to its core.
The Commanders took Davis with the 19th pick overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. With a pick that high, the hope for any organization is that young talent can have some solid growth as a professional and make an impact on the season eventually. Unfortunately for Washington, that wasn’t the case with the middle linebacker. He was only allowed to start in half of the 16 games he played in, and while he had a solid number of tackles — 76 combined — he had major issues in pass coverage.
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In 2021, Davis was targeted by opposing quarterbacks in his limited action on 42 occasions, and they connected on a whopping 86% of their throws. While Davis did play well this summer, his problems covering slot receivers continued in the team’s Week 1 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He was targeted five times and beaten in three instances. It should have been four if not for an overthrow by Trevor Lawrence on what should have been a touchdown pass to Travis Etienne.
That fact was brought up during Jack Del Rio’s weekly press conference when giving his brutally honest thoughts on Davis’ performance last week and trouble defending the Jaguars’ various receivers.
Commanders’ media members looked to press the team’s defensive coordinator further on Davis. While the former Jaguars head coach didn’t add any new points to his response, he still hammered home the hard fact that Davis did not get off to the sort of start he needed in his second season in Washington.
The Commanders look to move to 2-0 on the road versus the Detroit Lions on Sunday afternoon.