With Josh Sitton out for the season, Jesse Davis was given more responsibility
Jesse Davis is ranked the 54th Guard by PFF
Josh Sitton getting knocked out for the season after only 1 game had a negative effect across the entire Miami Dolphins team. In Jesse Davis’ case, it meant he received less help than he did in Week 1 against the Titans.
The former Tackle is two weeks into his 1st full season as a starter at Right Guard. While the Titans and Jets offer a different challenge, both present opposing Offensive Lines a serious test.
So far, Davis is ranked the #54 Guard in the NFL…
…not the 54th Right Guard mind you, but 54th overall. Given that the Left Guard is the premier Guard on a team, this puts Davis at the lower edge of the middle 1/3 of the league. This means he’s approaching ‘solid’.
The context of his ranking is Davis hasn’t had a full season at the position, the Jets tough front, and he had less help from the Center than is normal for a Right Guard, due to Sitton’s absence. With this in mind, let’s inspect ‘Davis v.s. the Jets’.
Jets have a talented defensive front with Leonard Williams, a premier player, moving all along the line. The Jets also add extra difficulty by scheming up winning snaps with aggressive looks, a lot of pre-snap movement, physical play on receivers, near-constant edge blitzing or threat of edge blitzing. It’s a big part of why the pay per head sportsbook services didn’t like the Dolphins chances against the Jets.
Here is one example of a perfectly timed corner blitz by Buster Skrine that kills a play.
Below is the same play as above except zoomed out so you can see the presnap movement better. I hate the Jets, but I am always impressed with Bowls defense. This type of pre-snap movement by a defense isn’t easy to pull off on a consistent basis.
The Jets also make it difficult to beat them by using pass rush and run blitzes designed with a high volume of stunts and looping movement. These stunts and delayed stunts sometimes have as many as 3 players attacking one point! This ‘exotic style’ gave the Dolphins Offensive Line fits at times. But, to the Dolphins credit, the Offensive Line played for 60 minutes and Adam Gase schemed in offensive wins.
Ultimately, Gase’s creativity and Phins grit won the day.
Davis faired the best of the 3 interior players, but he did have a couple of miscues.
Davis’ assets at the position are his strength, effort, length, and ability to block on the move. He is still raw making it hard to determine whether some of his issues are weaknesses or just being green. While Davis is devoured on one run play below with an amazing inside move by Leonard Williams, his play was mostly a plus. To Davis’ defense, the vast majority of inside defenders couldn’t pull this move off. So it’s fair to say Davis was likely caught by surprise.
Williams is an elite player with unbelievable agility and strength. I’m sure Davis learned in no uncertain terms that you don’t assume with certain players. Overall though, Davis was the most consistent O-linemen in the run game among the Dolphin interior players.
It’s hard to knock Davis’ play when all things are considered: His salary, inexperience, and the level of play at the position in years past. Davis’ acquisition is a good win for the Dolphins. I’m a fan of Jesse Davis, so maybe this is just me being star struck, but I expect Davis to creep into a mid 40’s raking by PFF come late in the season. I also expect him to man the spot for some time to come. Go Phins!!!
