Jordan Davis is a new man and a better player. His transformation saved the Eagles against the Rams
Davis didn't Tush Push on his 61-yard blocked field goal return. It was a Tush Dash. Sometimes a player simply needs some time to prove people wrong.
The operative verb to use when describing what happened on the final play of the Eagles’ rather remarkable 33-26 victory Sunday over the Los Angeles Rams — Jordan Davis blocking a potentially game-winning field goal, picking up the ball, and beginning to move forward — is chug.
Davis is 6-foot-6 and weighs, officially, 336 pounds. Men of that size chug. Men of that size who play football have chugged for time immemorial. William “Refrigerator” Perry chugged. Reggie White chugged. Billy Bob from Varsity Blues definitely chugged. But Jordan Davis does not chug. Not when he traversed the 61 yards to the end zone. Not earlier in the game, when he chased down Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford near the sideline for a crucial third-quarter sack. Not anymore.
» READ MORE: Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter found the Rams’ ‘fish’ on both blocked field goals: ‘We just hit the gap’
Jordan Davis sprints now. NFL database Next Gen Stats clocked him at 18.59 mph on that blocked-kick return, the fastest speed of any 330-pound-plus player since at least 2017. He does something like that again, and the league’s owners might vote to ban him. This wasn’t a Tush Push. This was a Tush Dash. This was Davis showing how fast he could be, how far he had come, and why the Eagles are harder to kill than crabgrass.
“Coach [Nick] Sirianni, he talks about it’s a dangerous thing when the group never gives up, and this group never gave up,” quarterback Jalen Hurts said. “That’s what I’m very proud of. I think a win like this is encouraging, but it also lights a fire under everybody to strive for the level of execution that we want. We talk about playing for a standard. The standard isn’t to produce or to have these numbers or certain statistics. It is to execute whatever we’re asked to do.”
No better example Sunday or this season than Davis. He lost 26 pounds in the offseason, committing himself to maintaining a weight and a conditioning level that would allow him to play more, to stay on the field on passing downs. He was tired of being a defensive tackle whom the Eagles could trust only to stop the run. He was tired of being viewed the way that Vic Fangio’s predecessors at defensive coordinator saw him — gigantic and talented but one-dimensional.
“When I came in,” he said in the locker room after Sunday’s game, “it was ‘Nose guard. Nose guard. Nose guard. Push the pile. Nose guard. Push the pile. Push the pile.’ But as the years progressed and I learned a little bit more, I understand my role is going to be higher. With the new system we have, that evolved my role. I really wouldn’t want it any other way. Without going through that, I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am now.
“I don’t want to be a flash-play player. I want to be, ‘He’s an every-down guy. He has the ability to stop the run, stop the pass.’ … I just want to make sure I’m available on the field. I knew my role coming into this year was higher. They were asking more of me. You have to work a little bit harder to answer the call.”
There’s a lesson in there, especially for someone still wondering why the Eagles have won 19 of their last 20 games and are coming off one of the most dominant Super Bowl performances in the history of the sport. After the Eagles used their 2022 first-round pick on him, Davis generally was regarded as a disappointment through his first two seasons, perhaps a pick who would turn out to be a waste. A run-stopping defensive tackle? In a league where pressuring the opposing quarterback is every team’s top priority? Could he make himself versatile enough to be more than that?
» READ MORE: Eagles grades: Jalen Hurts sparks comeback as passing game comes to life in time to beat the Rams
Funny, though: The Eagles don’t complete that crazy comeback Sunday, don’t hold the Rams scoreless after the opening minute of the third quarter, don’t rally from 19 points down without Davis doing what it was once feared he couldn’t. He had to do more in their season opener against the Cowboys, when his buddy and fellow Georgia alumnus Jalen Carter got himself kicked out of the game, practically before it began, for spitting at Dak Prescott — played 87% of the Eagles’ defensive snaps that night, then 53% last week against the Kansas City Chiefs. Eleven tackles through those first two games, another five against the Rams, plus a play that no one around here will forget anytime soon. Sometimes a player simply needs some time to prove people wrong.
“The only opinions that really matter to me … are everybody in that room,” Davis said, “everybody who has a belief in me, everybody who believes. That’s one thing that keeps me going: the belief that the team has in me, the belief that the coaches, the front office, myself — the belief in myself, most importantly, that I can go out and do it, that I’m here to stay and I’m here to play.
“I don’t want to be a guy who’s just coming in on first and second down, stopping the run, and just leaving. I want to be able to impact more. I want to be able to do more. My role is higher. My calling is higher.”
His chugging days are over. He scooped up the ball and could have, maybe should have, just dropped to the ground to end the game, to make certain the Eagles would win. Instead, “I didn’t know I was going to go all the way to the end zone,” he said. “Just started running, and my legs carried me from there.” Who knows where they’ll take him and this team next.