Man, I love Akeem Davis. But what choice do I have?
When one reviews the changes that Gruden made this season, it’s as if he is reading articles like these and fan comments about the offensive line, the secondary, the lame pass rush, the inability to draft and groom talent, the lame coaches.
(Sorry John Keim, I love your work, but quoting coaches who say Foerster is a “respected” offensive line coach is a safe political statement, not a professional assessment.)
The team addressed virtually every issue raised by the fan base.
When you have a losing team like the Redskins, the fans, in order not to go insane, end up rooting for individual players that can make plays. This could be where there is the big disconnect between the changes that took place and the where the fan base is.
One of the key plays, the momentum changers of the magical 2012 season, was the first Thanksgiving touchdown bomb from RG3 to Aldrick Robinson. To watch Robinson run was a thing of beauty. I’ve never seen a snapshot of Robinson running with a foot on the ground. He ran gracefully like a gazelle and just seemed to be floating on air. Yet, apparently, he wasn’t good enough in practice or whatever and was cut.
Akeem Davis, an undrafted safety, also has this magical quality in the way he is physically gifted — both super-fast and super powerful for his size. Like Robinson, he seemed to make all the knucklehead mistakes when on the field (helmet hits on Special Teams, etc). Nonetheless, writers like Chris Russell quoted coaches as saying, “If Davis clicks at safety, he will be something very special.”
The question is, did it click? By the reports of Safety lineups in camp, it sounds like no, it has not clicked or the coaches do not see it. We will find out soon enough when roster cuts start. If he is cut, I would be shocked if they didn’t place Davis on the Practice Squad.
Still for a desperate fan base, cutting a guy like Davis with so much upside and so much heart to put pins in his broken thumb so he could go right back out on the field the next day, would be another tough pill to swallow. Until the Redskins prove otherwise as a team, all the fans have are favorite players to watch.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
