Seahawks drafting Raekwon Davis would come with too much risk

Raekwon Davis may have huge potential at defensive tackle but seems to run hot and cold. The Seahawks drafting him early might be risky.

I should preface what I am about to say by clearly stating I am not directly going to compare Raekwon Davis‘s off the field behavior with Malik McDowell’s off the field issues. But I do think there may be a link between the two on the field, though. This is why the potential of the Seahawks drafting Davis late in the first round or early in the second round as a risky move.

Some mock drafts have had Davis being selected by Seattle as early as the late first round. This would be a mistake. Davis is extremely physically gifted and at 6’6″ and 315 pounds, he is more than big enough to compete in the NFL. But his production in college portends that any team drafting him might be wasting money.

The Seahawks did this with McDowell. McDowell was roughly the same size as Davis and with a lot of the same physical attributes. But McDowell also never played a down for the Seahawks after being involved in an ATV incident. Hopefully, Davis will live and healthy life but not be paid by the Seahawks.

McDowell had huge inconsistency issues in college, though he was skilled and large enough to dominate every team he played. As a sophomore in 2017, Davis had 8.5 sacks and 10 tackles-for-loss. But in 2018, those numbers fell to 1.5 and 5.5, respectively. Last year in his senior season, Davis was worse with .5 sacks and 3 tackles-for-loss. Davis wasn’t missing games, however, he seems to just not have been motivated enough.

Davis said at the NFL combine, “There were a lot of things I wasn’t doing to improve my game. I wasn’t really focused enough sometimes.” Needless to say, those two statements should be massive red flags.

Davis did have one off the field incident before the 2017 season began where he either was shot by someone else or accidentally shot himself. As bad as this situation was, Davis hasn’t other notable off the field issues so it appears the problems he has are with performance.

The Seahawks took a chance on Malik McDowell, even though he was known to not always play to his fullest ability. The same seems to be true of Raekwon Davis. When it comes time for Seattle to take their first or second third choice in the 2020 NFL draft, Seattle shouldn’t go with Davis but someone more motivated to be a Seahawk.