Jamin Davis’ brain is unlocking his body — and former Kentucky star’s potential

In his second season, Washington Commanders linebacker Jamin Davis has become a key cog in an ascendant defense by making subtle improvements to the nuances of his position. The 2021 first-round pick out of the University of Kentucky had a rough rookie year, but throughout this season, he’s progressed in several key areas, including play recognition and eye discipline. The 24-year-old’s mental strides have allowed him to show consistently the tremendous athleticism that enamored Coach Ron Rivera in the first place.

Basically, Davis’ brain is unlocking his body.

Some of the reasons for this development, such as better preparation, were in his control, and others were not. Last year, an undisciplined group of linemen hurt Davis’ performance, and this year, he’s benefited from the line’s elite cohesion. This offseason, coordinator Jack Del Rio tweaked the scheme in part to help his athletic defenders — more “match” zone, less traditional coverage — and Davis has looked more comfortable.

Coaches pushed him, too. During Davis’ rookie year, Rivera and Del Rio preached patience and defended him despite his struggles. But in Week 1, when Davis played poorly, Del Rio criticized him sharply to reporters, in part, Rivera said, because coaches thought his military upbringing might make him more responsive to direct challenges.

“The biggest thing is how we handle him now,” Rivera explained. “It’s not, ‘Oh, he’ll be OK.’ Now, it’s, ‘Hey, come on. You’re smarter, you’re better than that. Let’s go.’”

Over the past three months, Davis’ steady growth has earned him trust. In October, when middle linebacker Cole Holcomb got hurt, Davis shifted from weakside linebacker to middle. Before Washington’s biggest game of the year — at undefeated Philadelphia on Monday Night Football — Del Rio gave Davis the green dot, which meant he was responsible for relaying play calls and helping set the front. Since Week 8, Del Rio has shown confidence in Davis by using just one linebacker on 39.7 percent of the unit’s snaps, more often than any other team in the league and nearly double the rate of the next team (Las Vegas, 22.8), according to TruMedia.

In Week 9 against Minnesota, in the middle of his rise, Davis tore a ligament in his right thumb. It was less physically limiting than it was a test of his pain tolerance, and Davis said he wore a small cast, “numbing (the thumb) up a little bit and playing through it.” He waited until the Monday of the bye week to have surgery and said he expects to play Sunday night in the high-stakes New York Giants rematch.

The Post recently reviewed game film with Rivera and Davis to understand in detail how Davis has improved this season.

“By no means is he a finished product, but he’s done such a good job,” Rivera said.

Play recognition

Early this fall, Davis’ quick reactions jumped out as one of his biggest improvements. As a rookie, Davis struggled to diagnose plays pre-snap, which forced him to process them post-snap, which created hesitation and false steps, which made him slow and late. But through time and study, he improved at using context clues — formations, personnel groupings, field position, down and distance — to anticipate plays.

In Week 3 against Philadelphia, Davis’ pre-snap read suggested a sweep left, and when his post-snap read confirmed it, he bolted around the edge and cracked the pulling center. Rivera praised the speedy reaction but said Davis needed to do more; the running back still got outside for a 7-yard gain. The next step would’ve been to drive through the center, rather than just hitting him, to turn the run inside or to make the tackle.

Ten weeks later, against the Giants, Davis made a more advanced read. He was already suspecting a run, but when he noticed the left guard setting “really light” on his left hand, he suspected the guard might be preparing to pull on a run to the left. After the snap, read confirmed, Davis filled his gap with what Rivera called “very good” form, another improvement. Davis kept his helmet up to continue reading the play and his hands into his blocker to give himself leverage.

For other reasons, the running back gained 5 yards. Davis critiqued himself, saying he could’ve hit the inside shoulder of his blocker to make the tackle instead of allowing the gain. He credited Holcomb, a mentor, with helping his play recognition.

“Incredible jump forward, to be honest with you,” Davis said. “Now that I know those things, it’s clear as day for me. It’s easier to pick up on plays and just make them a lot faster.”

Leverage in coverage

As a rookie, Davis sometimes had poor technique and leverage in coverage against running backs and tight ends. This season, he’s shown several examples of better man-to-man coverage against backs, particularly on wheel routes, and in a critical moment in Week 10, Davis used his athleticism to maintain good leverage in space.

Early in the fourth quarter, Davis realized the Eagles were running the same tight end screen they’d scored on in Week 3. He took an angle to the convoy that let him keep outside leverage and force the ball back inside. For another player, funneling the play to his help would’ve been enough. But because Davis is nimble, he planted his foot — “Look at how athletically he stops,” Rivera said — and changed direction to reach the tight end and force a key fumble. (Davis also got away with a face mask.).

The art of lying

In the preseason, as Davis’ progress first materialized, he started regaining swagger. In late August, he dismissed those who called his good plays “flashes” of who he could become by saying, “F--- that. That’s me.”

In Week 2 in Detroit, Davis’ confidence got him in trouble. It was third-and-3 when he walked up to the line of scrimmage. He was trying to bluff a blitz up the middle, but he was caught out of position when the ball was snapped. He tried to read the play as it happened, and the running back took off for a route, which was a trigger for Davis to blitz off the edge. Rivera said Davis’ lack of feel, as well as poor play recognition and eye discipline, made him late. He didn’t generate pressure, a teammate blew a coverage, and the Commanders allowed a 49-yard completion.

Nearly three months later, against the Giants, Davis demonstrated better feel by lying in the structure of the defense. On one play, the Giants motioned a tight end across the formation toward Davis, and Davis took a couple of steps forward to present man-to-man coverage. But it was a trick. He was actually blitzing and wanted to gain a few steps and a better line. Noting the cerebral adjustment, a blend of art and science, Rivera exclaimed, “Watch how patient he is!”

Davis burst into the backfield basically unblocked and helped limit a running back dive to a 2-yard gain. If the Giants had run something to Davis’ side, like a bootleg or stretch, they wouldn’t have expected him, and it could’ve been a big play.

The next step, Rivera said, is for Davis to set up blocks with feel. Rivera liked Davis’ fundamentals while defending a run earlier in the Giants game — hands up, eyes up — but he wanted Davis to gain an edge by manipulating the lineman with his body. Instead of jumping into his assignment right away, Rivera said, Davis could have baited the lineman with an intentionally false step, gotten him to overcommit and used his athleticism to evade the block altogether.

“If I sell it . . . that (lineman) stays flat,” Rivera said, mimicking Davis beating the lineman. “Look at the big hole.”

’Son of a gun’

In Week 8, when Washington needed a critical stop at the goal line, Del Rio called a play designed for Davis. The linebacker said he recognized Del Rio’s trust and was “a little anxious, like, ‘Oh, s---. This is me. This is my time.’”

Before the snap, Davis read the field and determined his opening would be the frontside A gap between the center and left guard. Davis suspected the Colts were going to run read option, and he’d have to hit the gap fast to get into the backfield and make a stop.

In that moment, everything crystallized. Davis burst through the open gap, stuck his foot in the ground to change direction and drove through the running back, dragging him to the ground.

“Look how strong he is,” Rivera said. “Son of a gun. He reminds me so much of (former Carolina linebacker) Thomas Davis at his age.” Rivera nodded. “(Thomas Davis) was in that part where things were starting to come more natural, and that’s what’s happening right here. That’s what I see as a huge, huge, huge possibility for us.”

’Those are fewer, far between’

Early in the second quarter against Atlanta, Rivera said, Davis and end James Smith-Williams made “an exchange call” to stop the Falcons’ dangerous read option. They swapped responsibilities — Smith-Williams took a run up the middle and Davis the edge — but post-snap, Davis hesitated. Rivera said Davis peeked into the backfield (poor eye discipline) and shuffled a step right rather than immediately filling the edge.

Instantly, the Falcons’ right tackle climbed to Davis. The quarterback kept the ball on the read option and nearly ran through the hole for a big gain. But Davis, playing with good fundamentals, shed the block and lunged at the quarterback, tripping him up to limit the mistake to 7 yards.

His body was covering up for his brain.

“Every now and then, he’ll do something like this,” Rivera said. “But those are fewer, far between, and you see the growth and development.”

The play was a decent encapsulation of where Davis is: He’s made strides in parts of his game, such as play recognition, to raise his floor, and in real time, that progress is actively refining the athleticism that excites Rivera and gives Davis such a high ceiling. Davis said that, nearly a year after his difficult rookie season, he feels like himself again.

“(Growing up), one of the biggest of the lessons I was told is, regardless of what people say, if you just trust the process, trust your work, at the end of the day, everything will work out,” he said.

This weekend’s NFL games on TV

Thursday

8:15 p.m.: 49ers at Seahawks (Amazon Prime)

Saturday

1 p.m.: Colts at Vikings (NFL Network)

4:30 p.m.: Ravens at Browns (NFL Network)

8:15 p.m.: Dolphins at Bills (NFL Network)

Sunday

1 p.m.: Steelers at Panthers (CBS-27)

1 p.m.: Cowboys at Jaguars (Fox-56)

4:25 p.m.: Bengals at Buccaneers (CBS-27)

8:20 p.m.: Giants at Commanders (NBC-18)

Monday

8:15 p.m.: Rams at Packers (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2)