Eagles

Jordan Davis Didn’t Play Enough Snaps on Sunday

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Sep 12th, 2022 · 8:45 AM EDT

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Let’s check in on the Eagles’ first round draft pick, a guy they traded up to get:

Jordan Davis playing less snaps than Marlon Tuipulotu while the Eagles couldn’t stop the run just doesn’t make sense. Not only did Gannon’s schematic plan stink yesterday, so did his personnel usage

— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) September 12, 2022

6.5 YPC on 28 attempts while Jordan Davis only played 32% of snaps is a damning statistic. Totally unacceptable at the NFL level.

— Honest NFL (@TheHonestNFL) September 12, 2022

Davis played 22 out of 69 available defensive snaps, which, against a team that you knew was going to run the ball, seems crazy. They actually had a three-man rotation of sorts going on at DT, with Fletcher Cox playing 57% of the snaps, Javon Hargrave playing 55%, and Milton Williams playing 48%. In the fourth spot, that was Tuipulotu, with 42%. Only four players logged fewer defensive snaps than Jordan Davis in week 1, those guys being Derek Barnett, Patrick Johnson, Nakobe Dean, and K’Von Wallace.

I haven’t been able to do a rewatch yet, but on the plays he was in the game, it seemed like Davis was having an impact. The one that stood out was the 3rd and 1 in the Red Zone, when he held his ground and allowed Marcus Epps to come in and make a nice play:

Jordan Davis does his job. Ate the center, Marcus Epps came in with the cleanup job. Good team defense on third and short. pic.twitter.com/g64OWUHMu6

— DIE-HARD 🦅 REALTOR® (@Eaglesfans9) September 11, 2022

We’ll have to hear what Jonathan Gannon says at his midweek press conference, but hopefully we can get some answers from Nick Sirianni on Monday. Plenty of defensive questions abound, not just focusing on Davis. Gotta look at how Gannon used Haason Reddick as well. You expect some mistakes and some iffy tackling in week 1, but when talking about scheme and deployment those questions are 100% legit after a single game. That’s a film room/coaching thing and irrelevant to the amount of time they spent practicing this offseason, or the amount of snaps these guys got in the preseason games.

Also, if you notice in the picture at the top of the article, that’s Davis vs. the Jets. He played so sparingly against the Lions that our photo service doesn’t even have a single pic of him in week 1 action.