Thursday, April 30, 2009
By STEVE DOERSCHUK
BEREA — A team whose running game has long moved at a crawl could use a little excitement.
Introducing No. 195 overall pick James Davis, set to debut in an orange helmet at rookie minicamp Friday.
In a Browns fan’s dream, he’s Terrell Davis, the 196th pick of the 1995 draft. That Davis gave the Broncos 1,117 yards rushing as a rookie, 1,538 as a sophomore, 1,750 yards on his first Super Bowl team and 2,008 yards on his second. He basically was done after those four years — but what a ride.
James Davis comes out of Clemson at 5-foot-11, 207 pounds. Terrell Davis came out of Georgia at 5-11, 210.
Size similarity aside, the Browns’ Davis did not ascend at Clemson the way Terrell Davis did in the NFL. James Davis rushed for 879 yards as a freshman, 1,187 as a sophomore, 1,064 as a junior and 751 as a senior.
Still, draft analyst Mike Mayock rated Davis as a likely third- or fourth-rounder coming out of the NFL combine.
“I had a lot of predictions,” Davis said after the Browns picked him. “I just prayed for the best, but you have to expect the worst.”
Davis impressed some as a future first-rounder in 2005. As a 19-year-old true freshman, he popped a 33-yard run vs. Texas A&M in his first game. He missed two midseason games with a broken wrist, then ran hard in a soft cast, ending at 5.5 per carry.
He built on that in 2006 as a semifinalist for the Doak Walker Award, rushing for 1,187 yards at 5.85 per carry. But the improvement stopped.
By 2008, he had a nice nickname, the first part of “Thunder and Lightning” in a tandem with C.J. Spiller, but the stats were gone. His per-carry average was 4.4.
NFLDraftScout.com sounded this alarm coming off the Senior Bowl: “He just might turn out to be a nice one-cut-and-go runner in the NFL. However, Davis’ pass protection skills are awful. His inability to even get a hand on linebackers coming in blitz drills did not inspire any confidence in coaches to leave him on the field for play-action.”
Davis suggests his background in a two-back system is a nice plus, but how could he supplant Jerome Harrison, a back who averaged 6.8 yards on 57 carries the last two years? Why would an unproven back share carries with Jamal Lewis, who believes he gets better as he gets warmed up?
Browns general manager George Kokinis has seen sixth-round backs work out. He was in Baltimore when the Ravens drafted Chester Taylor, who is about James Davis’ size. A No. 207 overall pick out of Toledo in 2002, Taylor was an important extra piece (408 yards from scrimmage) in a 2003 offense that helped the Ravens win the AFC North.
With Davis, Kokinis is playing it low-key.
“He’s a decent-sized kid with some straight-line speed and some production,” Kokinis said. “At that time in the draft, you have a kid that has that kind of speed, you take a shot.
“He’s going to come in here, work hard and push some people, so we’re excited on the upside.”