Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
Ja’Gared Davis is a little surprised when he hears that his statistics factually place him in the company of the CFL’s top defensive playmakers. Surprised in that, he says, he doesn’t keep track of those things, really.
He is only mildly surprised, though. Because even if the Calgary Stampeders’ dominating defensive end doesn’t have a concrete tally of his accomplishments at the forefront of his cranium, he knows he’s having a very good year, just by the feel of it. For him, that is a satisfying thing, as he was determined to make this season something special.
“It’s my third year,” he says, a few moments after the Stamps had finished a day of prep for Saturday’s game in Edmonton. “For me I look at it like this is my year where I really gotta come out and let people know this: I’m a player that’s here to stay, I’m trying to be a household name. But, more than anything, I’m on a great team, I’m in a great organization.”
The 27-year-old (he’ll be 28 next week) native of Crockett, Texas quickly showed that he was going to be a boon to the Calgary defence after making his debut back in June of 2016, with a reputation that grew rather quickly.
An impressive rookie campaign was followed by an equally good sophomore year, although one that was limited to ten regular season appearances due to injury.
Ja’Gared Davis has been pretty damn good from the get go.
Ja’Gared Davis scoops up the football against the Saskatchewan Roughriders (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
This year, though, “pretty damn good” can easily be upgraded to higher levels and a spot in the conversation about the best defensive players in the entire league. Is linebacker Alex Singleton – last season’s winner as Most Outstanding Defensive Player – on track to turn the trick for a second year in a row? Maybe, but to get there he has stiff competition from his own teammates and Davis is the one that should be considered hottest on Singleton’s heels.
There are lots of players ahead of Davis on the CFL’s statistical page where a tally of total defensive plays is kept but none are defensive linemen. They’re all linebackers and defensive backs. Singleton is up there, as you’d expect; in fact he’s third with a total of 75 defensive plays. Davis is tied with Montreal’s Chip Cox for 17th place with 51 total defensive plays, making him the highest ranking defensive lineman in the land, three plays ahead of Saskatchewan sack machine Charleston Hughes.
Davis’ 40 tackles rank him tied for 16th on the CFL’s list and, he’s the only lineman even in the top 30 on that list, unless you count Toronto’s Justin Tuggle, who played a fair bit at middle linebacker while starter Bear Woods was injured earlier in the season.
“I just line up and play football,” says Davis when alerted to his status as the top playmaking defensive lineman in the CFL. “Let everything else take care of itself.”
Two weeks ago, Davis was named a Top Performer of the Week after he rang up three tackles to go along with two interceptions (one he returned for a touchdown) in Calgary’s 39-26 win over Winnipeg. In Monday’s win over the Eskimos, Davis scooped up a critical fumble recovery midway through the fourth quarter in a tie game.
He’s had a big year but prefers to shine the glow on the team as a whole as opposed to himself.
“I’ve got great guys lined up (with) me and they push me,” says Davis. “Make me wanna be a better person, a better player and a better teammate.”
He rhymes them off by name: Johnson, Vaughters, Wiggan, Turner… and on he goes.
“I’ve got guys out there that are going to bat for me so I just wanna do the same thing, leave it all out there on the field,” he says.
If Davis is getting in on more plays than your average lineman, he figures Calgary’s scheming helps that happen. Well, the scheming as well as his own determination to do a little extra once his initial chores are taken care of.
Davis is hoping his Stampeders can make a third-straight Grey Cup appearance this year (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
“The plays designed for me, I know I’ve gotta open things up for our linebackers,” he says, referring to disciplined rushing and gap control. “We have a great linebacking corps.”
Once the assignment has been met, the scheme’s early moments fulfilled, Davis says not wanting to let the linebackers have all the fun kind of drives him to hustle. “If I free it up for them I know I wanna get in on the play too,” he says.
Davis continually preaches the importance of team concept, something that he believes in mightily even if it can, as we know, limit the sexy stats of sacks for some players while they are holding down their assignment fort. While Davis has the best defensive play tally among CFL linemen, his sack totals are down this year. With three to his credit, he trails teammate Micah Johnson by three and the league leader, Hughes, by ten.
“We all wanna be the sack leader,” says Davis, who had nine sacks in nine starts in 2017. “Everybody wants sacks. But at the same time, me wanting sacks (would be) selfish play, putting myself over the team and I’m not that type of person. I never have and I never will.”
“It don’t matter if I come out with thirty sacks or I come out with two sacks,” he continues, laying out the perspective that he has on the current season and alluding to the team’s ultimate goal of putting championship game frustration behind them. “As long as we had a great defensive performance and we win the game at the end – I hold up the Grey Cup at the end of they year – that’s a great year for me.”
And that, says Davis, is one of the most important ingredients in the Stampeders’ ongoing successes and a 9 and 1 record. In it for yourself?
That won’t fly in the foothills.
“We check that at the door,” Davis says of selfishness. “That’s not how our team is run, that’s not how our defence is run. We run off being a cohesive group, counting on one another. We pride ourselves on depending on the person next to us to do their job so that we can do our job.”
You can certainly say that about Ja’Gared Davis. That he is doing his job as good as, if not better than, any lineman in the league right now.
DAVIS NOT INSULTED BY GABLE’S COMMENTS
Depending on who you talk to, comments from Edmonton running back C.J. Gable, earlier this week, could be taken as an insult or with a shrug.
“They’re (the Stampeders) not as good as everybody thinks they are, they’re a regular team like everybody else,” Gable said, as reported by Postmedia’s Gerry Moddejonge, before making it explicit that he figured
he and the Eskimos had beaten themselves on Labour Day.
While Stamps’ quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell was riled by Gable’s comments, calling them “disrespectful,” Davis was not.
“He’s supposed to feel that way,” said Davis of Gable. “He’s a competitor just like I am. If I felt like we didn’t come out and play a complete game, I mean, I’d say the same thing.”
As far as what Davis expects from an Eskimos team on their home turf Saturday, he was succinct.
“I know what’s in Edmonton. I know what’s ahead of us. You know what you’re gonna get from Mike Reilly.”
“Playing against an opponent like that, you’ve gotta come with your “A” game every play, every snap, ’til the clock strikes zero,” he said.
