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Defensive Notes

Demario Davis

Saints extend underrated difference maker

New Orleans made a contract move on the defensive side of the ball yesterday, extending linebacker Demario Davis through the 2024 season. It's a quiet move for an underrated defender, but he's plenty known to those in IDP leagues.

Davis doesn't put up the kind of monster tackle numbers as Bobby Wagner, nor will he rack up the kind of sack totals as the better pass rushing linebacker, ala T.J. Watt. But year after year, he posts among the league's better numbers from the position in both areas.

I turned to the search engines at pro-football-reference.com to find the league's best players over the past five seasons. First I searched for linebackers who had at least 500 tackles and 20 sacks in that span. There's only one: Demario Davis.

I altered the searches down until I came up with a nice grouping of about 20 linebackers. That I could do by dropping down to 400 tackles and 5 sacks. From that group, nobody has more total sacks than Davis (21) and only five have more total tackles (580).

When you include data for quarterback hits and tackles for loss from that group, Davis comes in 1st in both categories. (Table sorted by total tackles.)

LINEBACKERS WITH 400 TACKLES AND 5 SACKS, 2017-2021
PlayerGSoloAstCombSkTFLQBHits
Bobby Wagner794412977389.53639
Joe Schobert7738724663310.52223
Blake Martinez6738123661712.03517
Zach Cunningham763772195966.52912
Eric Kendricks713502315817.52915
Demario Davis8040117958021.05857
De'Vondre Campbell803701905609.52619
Lavonte David713971615588.04824
Darius Leonard5834319553815.03020
Jaylon Smith7433020653610.02116
Roquan Smith6134817652414.04317
Jordan Hicks683261775038.53421
Myles Jack723171724896.01815
Cory Littleton792971784759.02616
Shaq Thompson7229617246810.53624
Tremaine Edmunds612931704635.52615
Foyesade Oluokun642721904625.01218
Jonathan Bostic662321834157.52118
Nick Vigil692411684095.01910

Davis probably won't rank among the top 20 linebackers for tackles, and he might not make it there for sacks, either. But few are more well-rounded, probably finishing in the top 25 or 30 in each. Nice, safe pick at the position.

--Andy Richardson

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