2015 NFL Draft: Carl Davis Scouting Report
As a preface to Carl Davis’ scouting report, let’s take a look at his athletic results from this year’s NFL combine — made possible by Mockdraftable.com.
STRENGTHS
For a 320 pound defensive tackle, Carl Davis is a very impressive athlete. He moves well up the field and laterally. One play that stuck out to me is this play versus Nebraska. For a big defensive tackle to be able to effectively play the mesh point on the read option between Ameer Abdullah and Tommy Armstrong Jr. (one of the more athletic quarterbacks in college football) is extremely impressive to me.
Carl Davis is very strong at the point of attack and is difficult to move off the line of scrimmage. While Davis is certainly a big body in the middle of the defense, he can use his athleticism to get upfield and disrupt the offense as well. When he combines his strength and athleticism, Davis routinely destroys single blocks and gets into the backfield.
As I mentioned before, Davis moves extremely well laterally. This shows up well in his pass rush — he is able to quickly dart around pass protectors and shines on twists and stunts. As the “scrape” player in twists, he is able dart around offensive linemen and accelerate up the field towards the quarterback.
As a pass rusher, Davis is still somewhat a work in progress, but he has some pass rush moves in his repertoire. He flashes active hands, but right now his bread and butter is his bull rush. Davis simply overpowers guards and centers and can easily collapse the pocket. However, he can occasionally hit a rip or a swim move, but those moves are still very much a work in progress for him.
Against double teams, Davis can usually hold his ground simply based on size and strength, but it would serve him well to develop moves to defeat double teams. His burst off the ball is very good and his athleticism is great — when he develops better technique he could take the NFL by storm.
WEAKNESSES
Like most tall defensive tackles coming out of college, Davis has a bad tendency to stand straight up out of his stance which causes him to lose ground in the game, and hampers his ability to be an effective pass rusher from time to time.
While Davis shows active hands, he doesn’t always make the best use of them. On some plays Davis will end up flailing his hands around instead of attacking the offensive line with a planned, structured attack. It would also serve him well to develop his pass rush moves to help him reach is potential as a devastating interior rusher.
Luckily for Davis, these concerns are extremely coachable at the next level; it’s just going to take discipline and effort on Davis’ end.
The main concern about Davis are reports about his lethargy coming out of Iowa. It’s disappointing that a player as talented as Davis would have these concerns. He has the potential to be a dominant defensive tackle in the NFL — he already played at high level for Iowa without having the greatest technique in the world.
PRO COMPARISON
Floor: Phil Taylor, Cleveland Browns
Ceiling: Marcel Dareus, Buffalo Bills
IDEAL SCHEME FITS
4-3 3-technique
4-3 1-technique
TEAM FITS
Detroit Lions
The Lions traded for Haloti Ngata this offseason, but they could still use a young defensive tackle to grow next to him. Ngata would be an ideal pro for Davis to learn under.
Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals have been known to take risks on players in the past and they could use a running mate to pair with Geno Atkins for the long term.
Denver Broncos
The Broncos will be moving to a 4-3 over scheme under new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips. Davis would be a fabulous addition on a defensive line that already features a dominant secondary and elite pass rusher Von Miller.
ROUND PROJECTION
Late 1st/Early 2nd