LOS ANGELES — The week of the preseason opener, Rams defensive line coach Giff Smith asked to speak with Tyler Davis individually. Smith had some good news for the second-year defensive tackle: Head coach Sean McVay did not want Davis to dress for the game, instead wanting to preserve him for the regular season.
“When I got to tell him, I went, ‘Listen, Sean made this decision. I didn’t even have to go to bat for you. That’s what you’ve done to elevate your game to have the status to be considered a starter,’” Smith recalled. “That’s about as nice of an honor and a pat on the back as you can get from anything.”
Smith followed the news by telling Davis to take this as further motivation to elevate his game, much in the way Davis has since the end of last season.
A sixth-round draft pick out of Clemson, Davis began to earn his coaches’ trust as his rookie season went on. Smith sent him out regardless of the situation, with no concern of whether Davis could handle it. When defensive coordinator Chris Shula reviewed tape from the year during the offseason, his appreciation for Davis grew as he noted the rookie’s ability to read the run and understanding how to combat one-on-ones and combination blocks.
During the offseason, Davis took a simple approach to transforming his body. He cut down on eating out and focused on eating more at home and eating cleaner, with his new fiancee doing much of the cooking. In conjunction with his workouts at the Rams’ training facility, he slimmed down and dropped body fat while going from 300 to 305 pounds.
“She’s been throwing it down,” Davis said. “I feel a lot quicker. I feel a lot better.”
He said he has felt this increase in speed in his burst at the snap, and in his nimbleness on pass rush moves. And it’s helped in his goal as a second-year player to process and play faster this season, to trust his instincts and not worry about making mistakes.
“If it don’t work it don’t work out, but just going for it. Seeing your keys, all the information you get from pre-snap and seeing what you get and then playing fast,” Davis said. “Go 100%, even though you’re wrong. You can make up a lot of stuff if you go 100%. If you see what you see and bet the wrong way, you can still make the play. It’s just being convicted about it.”
Teammates have noticed Davis’ conviction, but also his consistency. And coaches have noticed his increased ownership of the position.
While captain Kobie Turner is the unquestioned leader in the defensive line room, it’s been Davis who has helped his linemates get in the right technique before the snap when Turner is on the sidelines.
“I just think of him like a starter. If I see him out there, I never think twice about it,” Shula said. “We don’t have our linebackers trying to align those guys, those guys kind of align themselves. He’s kind of taken a step in that direction where if he’s in and Kobie’s not in, he’s the guy that they’re all going to be communicating with.”
Though the Rams typically only start two or three defensive linemen, depending on their weekly personnel groupings, Smith also considers Davis one of four starters alongside Turner, Braden Fiske and Poona Ford. Turner has called the quartet “practically interchangeable.”
But even with this confirmation that he’s arrived, no longer required to participate in preseason games like he was as a rookie, Davis said, “It feels good, but with freedom comes responsibility.”
“I say that all the time and that’s true. It’s no different than our country; there’s a responsibility that comes along with it,” said Smith, who as the son of a Clemson alum has followed Davis’ career since he was a freshman. “Just to see him become the player he has, to see him get engaged and start this next phase of his off-the-field life, those are the joys of coaching that the outside fan doesn’t really understand.”
BRIEFLY
Quarterback Matthew Stafford (back) participated fully in the Rams’ jog through on Wednesday, marking his third straight day of full participation after missing the first four weeks of camp with an aggravated disc.