The Lions are expecting big things this season from Marcus Davenport. In his first game in almost a year, "I was not good enough," Davenport said this week.
"Gotta be able to impact the game more, make more plays," he said. "But felt good to make it out clean and it definitely gave me some form of confidence that I can, because I felt the pace of the game and it was nothing crazy."
In 33 snaps in the Lions' season-opening loss to the Packers, Davenport made three tackles. He had one quarterback pressure, per PFF, in 14 pass-rushing snaps. The Lions need more out of him opposite Aidan Hutchinson, who faces double teams on most of own pass-rushing opportunities. That leaves Davenport one-on-one virtually every time.
"Man, I see the opportunity," he said. "I didn’t capitalize. There were a couple opportunities where I was halfway titled. I should be full tilt, full going, no hesitation. That’s my fault."
Davenport is still learning to fully trust his body after missing most of the past two seasons with injuries (ankle surgery in 2023, triceps surgery in 2024). Asked where his hesitation came from, he attributed it more to getting back in the flow of a game. He found himself overthinking at times about his job on each snap, rather than playing without restraint.
"It’s more nerves in the game," he said. "You come in and of course we’ve had joint practices, but when you get into the game, I didn’t cut it loose enough. I was trying to just do my job. I need to take it to the next level."
Davenport is a crucial piece of Detroit's defense. If he can't win his one-on-one reps across from Hutchinson, the Lions will have to find someone who can. They showed what they could do as a duo in the season-opener last year, combining for 17 QB pressures, eight QB hits and 1.5 sacks in the Lions' win over the Rams.
Of course, this year's season-opener was a much different story.
"I’m trying to be as present as I can be and get rid of my expectations because I know my expectations tend to make me slow and then I start second-guessing myself where, 'It should have been like this and it should have been like that,'" Davenport said. "I can just say, watching Hutch come back and destroy everything, it makes me proud to even be a part of this.
"And we got so many ballers on the D-line that Hutch is not going to be the only one eating."
No one ate last Sunday. This Sunday against the Bears, that has to change.