Gators LB Davis hopes for jump in NFL value
GAINESVILLE — The NFL talent evaluators who set up the tests at Florida’s pro day on Tuesday significantly underestimated linebacker Jarrad Davis’ physical abilities.
On his first vertical jump, he smacked the top of the measuring apparatus, forcing it to be raised significantly higher for future attempts.
And with a strong showing overall, Davis will hope he now has some teams also adjusting their prospect rankings to avoid underestimating him on draft day.
Dav i s s a i d h e h i t 3 8 . 5 inches on the vertical jump, 10 feet, 9 inches on the broad jump and ran the 40-yard dash in a personal-best 4.56 seconds before the slew of NFL c oac hes a nd s c out s in attendance at Florida’s indoor practice facility.
The ver tic al jump and broad jump marks are better than any linebacker achieved at the NFL scouting combine earlier this month, and the 40-yard dash time would be second-best on that list.
“That was the fastest 40 I’ve ever ran in my life,” Davis said. “It just felt like game mode. I came out here and just acted like I was in The Swamp. I was able to put myself in a zone that I haven’t been in in a while.”
Davi s, often c alled the h e a r t a n d s o u l o f F l o r i - da’s defense by coach Jim McElwain, was hobbled by a severely sprained left ankle over the second half of his senior season. After playing through the pain to get on the field in the Gators’ Oct. 29 win over Georgia, Davis played only once more the rest of the season, trying to gut it out as long as he could in the SEC championship game against Alabama.
He says he didn’t st ar t feeling back to himself until a week or t wo before the NFL scouting combine, and with limited opportunity for preparation, he chose not to run through the gamut of physical tests in Indianapolis. That put even more attention on his pro day performance Tuesday.
“I feel like it went good. I came out here with a mindset of just coming out and showing everybody that I’m still the same athlete I was before, and just showing that an ankle injury is an ankle injury and that happens — but I can bounce back every time,” he said. “I came out here today and I just wanted to show guys that I’m going to compete, I’m going to compete at the top level and I’m going to execute every time I get a chance to. And I feel like I did that.”
And while he didn’t work out for scouts at the combine, he did make a positive impression nonetheless while meeting with teams there.
“I knew going into the combine, guys want to know what type of person I was off the field,” Davis said. “I didn’t try to hide anything. I didn’t try to sugarcoat anything.
“I think that’s where a lot of guys mess up. They go in there and they try to put on something that they’re not. They want to see exactly who you are, so they know who they’re going to pick. I mean, they’re investing millions of dollars in us to play a ballgame, so I just wanted to go in and let them know, this is exactly who you have, this is exactly who you’re going to get every single day — you have nothing to worry about.”
While he felt he made good connections in Indianapolis, he still had to prove his physical attributes Tuesday.
“I was able to set marks for myself and really push myself to train and to compete, and if I didn’t get those times, I had to go back and put some more work in,” said Davis, who had 205 tackles, including 20 for loss, while a Gator.
Neither ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. nor Todd McShay have Davis as a first-round pick in their latest mock drafts. On NFL.com, Bucky Brooks is the only one of four analysts/ writers to have Davis going in the first round, at No. 19.
Davis says he won’t necessarily be upset if he doesn’t get selected in the first round, but he’d certainly like to be one of those first 32 names called.
Tuesday helped that cause.