Green Bay Packers: 3 Early Round Defensive Line Prospects

Raekwon Davis

Raekwon Davis brings the promise of instant impact to the Green Bay Packers with some concern about his drop in production after his sophomore season. In his sophomore year, he had 69 tackles, 10 for loss, and 8.5 sacks after being shot in the leg in the summer prior to the season. In the next two seasons combined, he had only 8.5 tackles for loss and a total of two sacks.

He’s a behemoth at 6’7″ 312 pounds. He demands constant double teams in the run game and in pass protection. A reason for a fall in his production after his sophomore year could be the realization of that from other teams. This was especially true in 2019 with Quinnen Williams gone to the NFL.

If you put him on the Green Bay Packers’ front line, he would almost definitely be an instant contributor. In the run game, Kenny Clark is already a huge problem for offenses inside, so there wouldn’t be as much focus on Davis and he could defeat 1-on-1 blocks. In the passing game, there’s the Smith Brothers and Clark to worry about so Davis would get tons of chances to be single blocked by a guard with no help.

When he has 1-on-1 pass-rush opportunities with no help from the offensive linemen around him, he does a great job of getting under the pads of his counterpart. He doesn’t always act on this with a pass rush move, but he has a rare ability to get leverage reliably. He’s shown a great swim and if he could find some moves from leverage, he could get back to the pass-rushing prowess that he had in 2017 as a sophomore.

As a run stopper, I would grade him a tick below the other two on this list. At 6’7″ it’s tough to get lower leverage on a lineman that’s trying to get below him as opposed to in pass protection when they are more straight up.

He sometimes has a tough time against double teams and is just generally not as consistent. However, his physical tools are frankly ridiculous. He can simply destroy blocks from pulling guards with one powerful forearm blow and completely ruin the play. Honing these tools to consistently take head-on blocks on the line of scrimmage will be key for him.

In my opinion, his two best traits are his ability to disengage from blockers even when he’s losing on the block and his awareness. Even though Davis didn’t make a ton of tackles in the backfield in 2018 or 2019, he did make many for a gain of only one or two yards. His ability to see the ball carrier coming into a hole and get rid of his blocker and wrap up all in one motion is very impressive and can save a lot of big plays when people are out of their gaps.

His awareness also saves big plays and can make turnovers happen too. He is rarely fooled by a screen and is athletic enough to chase it down from the back. Also, he had an interception his sophomore year on a tipped pass that he tracked and picked off.

His physical tools help make him a great prospect and they are what make people dream about his potential. Those extra traits and skills are what make him a great football player right now.