http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/15/jets-claim-marcus-davis-off-waivers-from-giants/ http://www.nfl.com/draft/2013/profiles/marcus-davis?id=2539333 project, similar to Hill without the huge huge upside, knocked for not really being a football player but more of an extremely talented athlete likely camp fodder eventual cut unless he finds some type of game
Been trying to find it again, I think it was on football insiders or one of the simiar football geek sites. But they did a comparison of all WR's drafted since 2000 and then compared receivers of similar experience in college and compared them on a metric basis and applied it to this years WR's as well. if I recall correctly Davis ranked VERY high, something like the 95th percentile, though I'm working off memory and could be confusing this with his physical metrics, which as also 95th percentile. If I can find the link again I'll post it.
http://rotoviz.com/index.php/2013/04/a-tale-of-two-beasts-part-ii-marcus-davis/ I think this is what you are referring to.
I poked around on that site and they seem to grade the Jets draft class A+ Didn't they get the message? Anything the Jets do has to be ridiculed and mocked.
yep that's one source, I was almost certain I'd seen something from football insiders, but at 51 my memory isn't what it used to be. Davis is a kid that if there's a toss up in TC you gotta give him the edge, for the #4 to 6 receiver slot, depending on my many WR's they carry, just for his huge upside. Of course he has a huge bust potential (if you can ever call a UDFA a bust), but at the last reciever on the team I'd take a flier on him. and this is assuming that the Jets keep Zach Rogers on the team. I think it will be between him and Gates for the last WR roster spot to be honest, I there's a chance we may have 3-4 UDFA make the team this year just because of how sparse the roster is in talent. If the Jets go with 5 WR's and both Rogers and Davis do well in TC there's a chance that if the Jets go with 5 WR's the depth might be Holmes, Kerley, Hill, Rogers, Davis.
The talent is there, but not sure about the effort as much to be honest. The VT offense was pitiful, when I was watching tapes of Thomas. But even with a bad QB, someone of his ability should have dominated the ACC much more than he did. It was almost like VT just used him and Fuller on constant go routes, because Davis wasn't much of a threat in the slant and come back routes. I don't know if it was the system or if his route tree is somewhat limited, but it is concerning. It's sort of backed up by his combine performance as well. If you look for a comparison, he beats out DeAndre Hopkins in 40 yard dash, broad jump, reps, and vertical jump. But his 3 cone performance was well towards the bottom of the group. (Hopkins didn't participate, so can't compare). But to compare with someone like Robert Woods: Davis: 6'3, 233 Woods: 6'0, 201 40- Yard Dash: Davis: 4.56 Woods: 4.51 3-cone Davis: 7.15 Woods: 7.15 Vertical: Davis: 39.5 Woods: 33.5 Broad: Davis: 120 Woods: 117 Bench Press: Davis: 19 reps Woods: 14 They seem extremely similar in abilities. Woods is a bit faster, but Davis is taller and a bit stronger. Stats senior year: Davis, 51, 953, 5 TD Woods: 74, 849, 11 TD Now, Woods had to deal with a much better talented WR opposite him that took away a good amount of opportunities for Woods, although Davis had to deal with a highly inaccurate QB this season, and also a talented (albeit nowhere near the ability of Lee) WR opposite him. However, as I mentioned before, Davis was used sparingly across the middle, while Woods has a complete route tree. Woods is the better prospect for sure, but I do think it's interesting how close their measurable abilities were, and wonder if a better QB could possibly have negated some of the difference between their stats. USC scored more than double the amount of TDs that VT scored via the pass, but does that fall on the system? The QB? or the WRs? Anyway, as I mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of the signing, and I probably would've been fine if we took him with either of our last two picks.
Actually with their #1 and #2 set (assuming Cruz signs his tender or gets a new deal and doesn't hold out) the Giants are better positioned to take a flyer and develop him. We have trash coming off an injury (Holmes) and a sophomore player who showed some flashes but still has a lot to prove in Hill. After them I don't think theirs anybody special at WR on this team. The problem with the Jets WR's is that there are too many projects and guys who haven't really done anything yet (as hard as it is to be a good WR with trash like Sanchez throwing to you).
I go to VT and I will say that you can't blame Marcus Davis for the lack of a passing offense. The playcalling was poor, and the QB worse. Logan Thomas threw 3 picks in the first half of our spring game a few weeks ago against a scrub team defense. I have no idea whether Davis will be good, but I wouldn't put too much stock into the past season. It'll be interesting to see how he does.
VT has a history of not developing WR's very well, they often enter the draft very raw due to the system VT runs. To the other poster as why he was cut by the Giants, he was cut the same day they signed 6 other players, including 2 or 3 veteran players. Personally I think the Giants were going to resign him to a different designation once he cleared waivers like the Jets have done several times already this year, and other teams do routinely, the Jets just claimed him off of wiavers....the same way that the Rams claimed Ganaway when the Jets were trying to move him to reassignment by releasing him with plans to resign him after clearing waivers.
As a WR he doesn't look like much. I'm wondering if the Jets might be interested in him as an H-back? If they could get him to block he becomes a lot more interesting and there's no better way to do that than to put him in a position where he has to block.
Theres no way this guy can be an H-back. The worst part of his game is blocking. Its straight up pitiful and he looks like Sanchez when he was lined up vs the Bills. He has the raw talent to be good, but so do many in the league, who knows but he's worth a shot. http://deadspin.com/5959914/virginia-tech-receiver-marcus-davis-doesnt-feel-like-blocking-ever
Yeah Thomas was pretty bad accuracy wise, especially for someone that is uber-talented. I believe he had a shot to be an almost top 10 pick this year if he had a good year, but he regressed badly. He seems really uncomfortable playing QB almost. I watched a few highlights with Davis (only about 3 or 4 on YT), and Thomas got bailed out a couple of times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2eFvci1A2s The first throw is pretty much under-thrown, and an easy interception if the DB wasn't trying to take down Davis. And he had No. 19, more open than Davis on that play right next to Davis, yet Thomas threw it up to Davis. The second throw is a bit more on target, but also slowed down Davis enough to get the DB to catch up as the ball was arriving. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehwBrdMdPDk Another throw where the first one is clearly underthrown. He had a good 3-4 yards on his DB, and he had to come back, and if the DB is a bit more athletic, that's a broken up pass at the least. The second one is a fine throw, I can't say anything about that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owbouQ5fN54 1:45 mark, a deep throw where Davis has his guy beat by a couple of yards, yet again has to come back for the ball. Starting to see a trend where Thomas just puts too much loop on the throws. 5:45, Davis wide open and a very good throw. Nothing bad to say about that throw. 8:08, Davis again beats his guys, but the throw again is really under-thrown and Davis again has to come back to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQxzw1hdHxs The very first play, deep ball to Davis. Again under-throw, should've been a possible INT. 2:05, Davis is wide open going to the back of the end zone down the middle, but Thomas throws it out on an attempted fade route. Terrible recognition and throw there. 3:45, very good pass, and on time. Can't say much about that one, maybe a tad behind him, but negligible. 4:53, a horrible throw. Davis was behind his DB, but not sure what Thomas was doing there. 5:45, Davis open again, good throw. 6:15, bad drop by Davis there. 8:25, good throw and catch by Davis, and a good run afterwards, although fumbles at the end. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMZISLmxHN0 First play, deep throw to Davis. OK pass, but is underthrown a bit, and also behind him. Good throw and Davis probably takes that to the house. 6:20, Decent pass, but Davis fumbles again at the end. ----------- There isn't a ton of play by play game tape available on Thomas, so can't really break down all the throws. Besides the GT one, all the other ones are highlights so not sure if Davis was a factor or not. Anyway, from watching these tapes, a few things pop up: 1) Logan Thomas throws a HORRIBLE deep ball. He can throw it far and he can throw it deep, but it's almost like a deep fly ball in baseball. Almost always under-thrown. He has good velocity on the intermediate routes, but the deep ball is definitely a minus. 2) Davis should have had better stats. With Thomas under-throwing him on many occasions, he never got that much opportunity to have YAC. Almost all of the deep throws, he had to slow down, come back, and then fight with the DB just to catch the ball. That's one thing that I think Geno Smith excels at. From his tapes, he's very good in leading his WRs, allowing them to get a ton of YAC. If he was playing with a better QB or a better system, I think he gets drafted atleast in the 4th round at worst. He can get open, and has very good size and speed. He seems to have good hands as well. 3) Davis does seem to have a bit of a fumbling problem. Saw atleast 3 fumbles in the videos. He is also a former QB from HS (albeit not that great). I saw he made one pass in college, and it was intercepted. Although the throw itself was ok, if the play had worked as intended. But no one was fooled on the lateral to him, and he's not good enough to fit it into a tight window on the run like that. However, if Davis and Kerley are on the field together with Geno Smith, we can atleast have the threat of running a read option to either side of the ball, a pitch back to Davis/Kerley and a throw down the field. Not like this is going to be a constant play, but atleast the threat can be there I guess on both sides.
Excellent review, people forget that he's a converted QB who was also learning the WR position in a system that isn't great for developing WR's. You make some very excellent points. Kids raw, I've always said that, but I loved him as a late round or UDFA pickup, his upside is huge, his downside well what is there to lose by taking a chance on him, not like he's a high or mid round draft pick where if he doesn't work out the Jets lose much and the Jets really really need an explosive reciver to develope and he has a chance to be that kind of reciver....a chance.
You can teach blocking. The guy is 6'3" 233 lbs. That's FB/H-Back size trending towards H-Back. He can put on 5 to 7 lbs and be just fine in that role. The point is that Marcus Davis clearly does not have superior instincts and skills as a WR. He wasn't even the primary project level WR at VT last year, that honor going to Corey Fuller. If you can flip the switch on the guy and get him to buy in on the field you might have a really strong player. H-back's get to catch the ball in the WCO. If Marcus Davis is going to be a no-contact diva he has no future in the NFL. I'd put the proposition to him and see what he says.
You can teach blocking, but you cant really teach attitude... Maybe Rex can light a fire under him, as a receiver, his blocking wont be as crucial, but he'll still have to at the very least get in the way. Funny thing is though, he's only about 5 pounds light than Jordan Reed who was drafted as an H-back/TE and also only about 10 pounds lighter than Aaron Hernandez. Could be an interesting option.
