Chicago Bears Draft Scout: Marcus Davenport

Marcus Davenport is a prospect on the rise as they head into draft season. Should the Chicago Bears draft him?

Marcus Davenport is an intriguing prospect as a three-sport athlete in high school who flew under the radar. He played sparingly in his freshman season, but still recorded 2.5 sacks. Davenport grew in his sophomore season, putting up four sacks and broke out in his junior year with 6.5 sacks and10 tackles for loss. With some recognition, Davenport built on that with a strong senior year that features 8.5 sacks and 17.5 tackles for loss. With a strong Senior Bowl week on top of it, the buzz is growing around the EDGE rusher from UTSA. Should the Chicago Bears have any interest?

Measurables:

Strengths

When watching small school players, they need to stand out without specifically paying attention to them. With Davenport, that is not a tough duty. He looks like an NFL player, and looks like a player who will likely fill out more.

When it comes to size, power, and speed, Davenport has it all. Watch the play below. Davenport is able to get his hands on his opponent first. He uses his length and strength to create separation and drive his opponent into the ground with force.

It was just small schools, either. Marcus Davenport brought it to the Big 12. That is just pure strength.

Tight ends and running backs had absolutely no chance against Davenport in college, and that will likely ring true as he grows into an NFL body.

On top of that he has the speed to get into the backfield in a hurry. He is able to bully his way into the backfield and uses his size to swat down the attempt and force a punt against Baylor.

Davenport is fluid moving in space. He is anxious to set the edge in run defense, and has all of the moldable traits and pieces to string together and turn into an NFL player.

Weakness

However, while he is not quite a project, there is definitely work that has to be done before expecting the world from him. First, in terms of technical skills, he has some ironing out of his game to do. He plays too high, and does not bend enough to get around the edge quickly. It also hinders a lot of the power he gets from his lower half as he typically shoots out of his stance before driving forward.

Davenport also has to become a more instinctive player. There are times where he will be caught out of place, and it costs the team. Watch the play below. It looks like Davenport is exploding into the backfield to blow a play up. However, he is a bit late, and the play broke outside to his side.

Davenport also has issues in changing directions quickly while maintaining speed. This means that when he takes himself out of plays like above, he is long gone from the play.