Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Jordan Davis On The Art Of Playing Defensive Tackle And Why He’s Always Moving Forward

Jordan Davis might be the most interesting player in the 2022 NFL Draft. The 6’6, 341 defensive tackle out of Georgia was arguably the most dominant single force in college football for most of the 2021 season — on the undisputed most dominant team in the country — but has only continued to grow his legend during the pre-draft process.

In case any NFL fans were curious about Davis’ freakish athleticism for his size, the big man dropped jaws in Indianapolis when he ran a 4.78 in the 40 yard dash.

That 40-time was the culmination of work that started for Davis in December, after his worst game of the season — in his words, “a hiccup” — against Alabama in the SEC title game. The Tide used tempo to neutralize Davis, running to the line and trying to gas out the big man, and saw a lot of success.

A month and a lot of miles on the treadmill later, Davis got his revenge, helping the Dawgs beat Bama in the national title game by once again controlling the line of scrimmage and answering a lot of questions about himself in the process. On Wednesday, the big man with the personality to match spoke with Uproxx Sports at the P&G Style Lounge in Las Vegas about his growth as a player at Georgia, how the Dawgs took the leap in 2021, how he had to look in the mirror after having his flaws exposed in that SEC title game, the work he put in before the Playoff, the art of playing defensive tackle, and much more.

To start draft night, tomorrow night. Where’s the excitement level at for you?

Excitement, anxiety is all wrapped up in one. But regardless, I know I’m gonna be in great hands. I know we’re gonna have a great time. Just have to keep grounded and just don’t worry about where or when, just worry about getting to this point. I’m already here, I know eventually my name is going to be called, so I’m not really concerned.

When you look back on your journey started playing football competitively in 10th grade to being here now getting ready to go into the NFL. What are you most proud of about yourself to get yourself to this point?

[Long, contemplative pause] Choosing the right friends, man. Choosing the right people to surround myself with, because at the end of the day, that’s probably the most important thing. You have a lot of players that fall by the wayside because they have the wrong crowd around them. But, you know, my friends and my family, they support me, they tell me when I’m wrong, they tell me when I’m right. The give me the real deal and regardless, this moment is for them. It’s not moreso for me, you know, obviously I’m gonna be excited to hit the ground running and get working, but it’s really for them to soak in the moment and enjoy it because they’ve been with me every step of the way.

From when you got to Georgia to where you are now as a football player. What would you say is your biggest area of growth?

Mentality. Dawg Time every year, it’s the most adverse time of the year — winter workouts — it’s really a grind, but just knowing that you’re gonna make it through no matter how hard it is. Just keeping one foot in front of the other. Don’t stop, don’t quit. And I think that’s one thing that I learned that Georgia was like, you know, you first get there and you’re like, man, it’s so hard, but you just gotta keep moving, cause if you just stop you’re making no progress. But if you keep one foot in front of the other, even if you got to crawl, at least you’re making progress and at least you’re moving forward.

How much does it help being at a place that has the level of talent around you pushing you like that. Just being in that D line room and seeing the guys around you? What do you think that did for you in pushing you to this level?

Definitely, I would say starting with the D line room, we’re always unified. And that’s one thing that we pride ourselves on. And so me, Trayvon, ‘Vonte, Zion, Jalen, all those guys in that room, we all operated under one tune. And so it was no individuals. It was no clash, backlash. There was no animosity, secret animosity, we all said what we need to say. If somebody was wrong, we’ll address it. And somebody’s right, we’ll address it. And it was just one of those things that we kind of set the blueprint for the rest of the team. And when the rest of the team was on board, that’s when we started seeing real changes. And I’d say like within the team, the team has grown so much in the past year.

You know, you look at the 2020 Cincinnati game and you’re like, damn, like they barely escaped by the skin of their teeth but they found something in them, to have that grit and to push forward and to come back and win. And we just carried that momentum into the next season and we knew that we had something special just to go on that historic run during the regular season, a little hiccup in Bama, and then come back for the postseason. It’s like, you can’t write it better. Like you really can’t. It’s crazy. It’s amazing. It’s crazy. And I’m just forever grateful. It’s something that you’ll always remember.

I do want to talk about the two Bama games. Because I think you would probably say the first one was the toughest game you had of the season.

Right.

What did you learn from that, that you were able to, in a month’s time, come back and have a different approach to when they tried to tempo you out of the game or when they tried to attack you in the ways they did? And what do you think that showed about you as a player that you can take an experience and learn from it, grow from it, and put it on the field a month later?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, the first time you know they definitely exposed a lot of holes in our defense and exposed a lot about myself. And it was one of those days you have to sit in the mirror and reflect and think about maybe you’re not as good as you think, maybe you have to put in a little more effort. And you know, you just had to go back to the drawing board. My drawing board was getting on the treadmill and running and getting moving get active, so when they do tempo, you know you’re going to be ready for it. And so coming back on the second time around, we knew we had it in the bag because of the amount of work we put it. No matter how the game went, we knew we had it. So, as long as we have one more point than the other team, we know we was gonna get it. But it’s like literally, you just have to do something different to be different. And I think that I really took that in consideration moving forward.

When you’ve spoken with teams during this draft process, what are the things that you’ve wanted them to know the most about you as a person?

Definitely my character. I feel like I don’t have any off the field issues or have any issues at all, honestly, but I just want them to know that what they see is what they get and they’re gonna get a guy that’s ready to work and has high energy and high tempo. But also the ability to stop the run and also the ability to pass rush. That was one of the things I was working on at pro day and the Combine was just showing them that I can move and I’m functional, not just a slow run stopper. And, you know, at the end of the day I think they understand and tomorrow we’ll see who wants me the most.

You talked earlier about your growth on the mental side of the game and I think defensive line is a particularly difficult one, especially on the interior, because part of your job is to free everybody else.

Right.

And it’s not always to go make the play.

Definitely.

What have you learned about when to pick your spots on when try to go make a play and when you say, okay, I know I just gotta be in my gap and let everybody else flow?

It’s kind of just the instinct thing. You know, it’s instinct and the trust. If you’re gonna go out and make that play, then you just gotta go 100 percent and you can’t miss it. Also, if you holding two blocks or holding a double team for a linebacker, you trust in him that he’s going to make that play for you, because at the end of the day you’re taking up two for him to be free. I think that’s something that we always take into consideration when we’re playing D-line. And just mentally, playing D-line is a mental game, it’s one of the hardest positions. Offensive line and defensive line, you’re always hitting somebody every play. It doesn’t matter like, you know, running backs, you could get the ball, you can go out for a flare out and not touch anybody, but literally, defense line and offensive line are always hitting every play and you can’t say that for every position. So it’s just really a mental thing. You just have to get your mind right. You have to be mentally strong and prepared to play that position.

Who are the guys that you look at and you try to pull things from into your game?

Fletch. Fletcher Cox, John Henderson, that’s a really old guy, that’s somebody I watched when I started off.

You gonna get somebody to slap you in the face before games like John Henderson?

Nah [laughs]. Nah, I can’t do that. But, you know, I get motivated in other ways. But you know, those are the guys that they compare me to, and say, like Calais Campbell, they say we were similar in size and stuff like that. I don’t really have any idols but those are the guys that just try to pick out little things and add them to my repertoire because if I add them to my toolbox I can just be better. I can get better by looking at somebody who does their job well. Those are guys that you watch his kids, watch growing up, and Fletch, I was watching him as a kid and he’s still playing the league. So it’s like, you know if he can do it then you can do it.

You’ve got the red carpet tomorrow night. You gonna be stepping out in something?

Definitely. Definitely gonna be stepping out in something. I might wear my Crocs on the red carpet. [Laughs] Nah, but yeah, definitely got a nice nice little fit. It’s something that I’ve been designing it for a good while.

How’s this partnership with Head and Shoulders helping you you get ready for tomorrow night?

Oh, this partnership is amazing, man. I’m going to be ready, my hair’s gonna be nice. Nice, silky smooth, shining, and you know, they just like me, they just never stop working. So we just keep it moving with Head and Shoulders and I’m glad that I had this opportunity to partner with them.