Alabama DL Raekwon Davis sees NFL draft stock drop as production slips

Raekwon Davis certainly looks the part.

At 6-foot7, 312 pounds, the Alabama defensive tackle is one of the biggest players in the upcoming 2020 NFL draft.

And Davis seemed destined for the first round after a dominant sophomore campaign in which he racked up 69 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks. But Davis followed that up with a bit of a down season his junior year, putting up 55-5.5-1.5.

Still, most draft analysts thought Davis would enter the draft last year, so it came as a bit of a surprise when he announced that he would return for his senior season. Davis, meanwhile, was hoping to put together a strong senior year while competing for a national championship.

Serious wingspan & hands from Alabama DT Raekwon Davis 99 pic.twitter.com/S3w7Uff23R

— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) January 15, 2018

Instead, Alabama wound up losing twice – once to LSU and the other to Auburn – and finished with a No. 13 ranking, beating Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.

And Davis didn’t have the season he was hoping for, either, finishing with 46 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and only half a sack.

Now? Davis is no longer in the first-round conversation, although a lot can change after the Scouting Combine.

The issue scouts and analysts alike see with Davis is fairly simple: great as a run defender, Davis doesn’t present much of a threat as a pass rusher.

He had a 62.6 pass-rushing grade as a sophomore, according to Pro Football Focus, followed by grades of 68.6 and 71.1 this past season. For his career, Davis had 87 pressures on 1,025 pass-rushing snaps, PFF said.

“Those are objectively average numbers by college standards and bad numbers by NFL prospect standards,” writes Michael Renner in PFF’s recent “Buyer Beware” report. “His length still plays in the run game, but that doesn’t quite move the needle for us at PFF as much.”

Fanspeak currently ranks Davis as its No. 77 overall prospect, which puts him in the third-round range.