Now a Lion, Marcus Davenport plans to fulfill the Year of the Dragon.
He admits that 2022 wasn't his year, as good as he felt in his final season with the Saints. Neither was 2023, when he was derailed by an ankle injury with the Vikings. But those were years he needed, Davenport said, "those are steps I had to take."
"With that behind me, I’m trying to use that to catapult me into greatness," he said Thursday after signing a one-year deal with the Lions. "2024 is the Year of the Dragon, so blessings and prosperity."
Davenport was once a first-round pick of the Saints (in 2018, Year of the Dog), where he spent three seasons playing under Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn. A 6'6 defensive end, he peaked with nine sacks in 2021, but missed 19 games over his five years in New Orleans. Now he's a forgotten pass-rusher trying to prove he still belongs. Davenport was limited to just four games last year in Minnesota, though he did have two sacks.
He still has some burst off the edge, and the Lions could use it. They spent most of last season searching in vain for someone to harass the quarterback opposite Aidan Hutchinson. They didn't start getting home consistently until they took to blitzing more often down the stretch. The Lions had 27 sacks in their final nine games (including the playoffs), a pace that would have placed them among the top five in sacks over the full season. They finished tied for 23rd.
Hutchinson had more than twice as many sacks and nearly three times as many QB pressures as anyone else on the roster. The next-closest player, in both cases, was defensive tackle Alim McNeill. That won't cut it for a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations.
The Lions are hoping that Davenport can help them win more one-on-one's up front, and reduce some of the strain on the backend of their defense. Davenport is hoping that playing on a line with the likes of Hutchinson and McNeill, "we’re all gonna have a great opportunity to eat."
"Shoot, super excited," he said.
Davenport, 27, described his pass-rushing style as "violent and physical," but added, "That’s even something I want to change. I want to adapt, I want to learn." He said that when somebody with the Lions told him "we got a lot of young guys that could learn from me, my first thought was, shoot, we got a lot of guys I could learn from." His main motivation in 2024 is "to win," whether it takes violence, finesse, or a combination of both.
"I know before, at times, I’ve gotten caught up on trying to beat the man, but there’s way more important things than just beating offensive tackles or whoever’s in front of me," he said. "There’s affecting the game, there’s strip-sacks, there’s disruptions. It’s about time to evolve."
He has the physical traits. The biggest question for Davenport is whether he can stay on the field. He's yet to play a full season in his six-year career, and he's coming off surgery on his ankle. He expects to be a go for the start of offseason workouts and said he's going "to do everything in my power to be ready for whatever they need of me." He's eager to lay it on the line again for Campbell and Glenn.
"Two people I've watched and I'm like, 'I wanna play for,'" he said. "I don't think there's many coaches in the league that people actually want to play for. That's good to be able to have at least two."
Glenn was the Saints defensive backs coach during their overlap in New Orleans. Davenport remembers him as "someone that doesn't play around. He's serious about winning." Campbell was assistant head coach (and tight ends coach), and Davenport recalls a speech Campbell gave to the team when then-head coach Sean Payton was sidelined by the coronavirus.
"It was the first time in a long time that somebody gave a speech and my heart was like, 'Yeah. Let's go do it,'" Davenport said. "I just remember his energy. I don't want to say how many people have the same kind of passion, but it takes someone that was there to actually understand me. So to see him in this position, I'd like to be able to help with that."
Davenport laughed and said the speech wasn't about "biting kneecaps, but it was something along the lines of, 'We've got grit.' That's the message I took away. Grit, like, he was being serious."
In the process of bringing Davenport to Detroit, Lions GM Brad Holmes told him, "I’ve watched your games and we can tell that you’re one of those guys that really appreciates the game and tries to put it out there. You’re a physical player." It solidified Davenport's decision to sign here.
"It’s always nice to have some belief," he said, "especially when I haven’t been able to prove everybody right."
After two quiet seasons, maybe this is the year he starts proving people wrong.