In 2024 free agency, as part of an ongoing search for capable edge rushers outside of Aidan Hutchinson, the Detroit Lions took a one-year flier on Marcus Davenport. He had played just four games the previous season with the Minnesota Vikings due to an ankle injury, amid speculation from one Twin Cities reporter about how hard he was working to return.
Davenport had a nice Lions' debut, then he missed Week 2 with a groin injury. In Week 3 against the Arizona Cardinals, as the result of a dirty move by Cardinals' offensive tackle Paris Johnson, he suffered an arm injury that would end his season.
If you're counting at home, Davenport has played six games with 2.5 sacks over the last two seasons. But the Lions decided to bring him back on another one-year deal in March, and optimism he can stay healthy has reigned ever since.
But the last time Davenport was mostly available, 2022 with the New Orleans Saints, he had just a half sack over 15 games and 490 defensive snaps. By far his best season of his career, since the Saints took him 14th overall in the 2018 draft, was 2021 (nine sacks, Pro Football's No. 8-graded edge defender). He missed six games that season, and he has missed at least two games in all seven seasons of his career.
So durability questions and concerns around Davenport are not new. They've been a prominent story during his entire career.
Marcus Davenport tries to put his critics in their place
To be fair, the nature of football brings inherent injury risk and no player is immune. To be fair to Davenport specifically, last year's season-ending arm injury was a total fluke and the result of a dirty play by an opponent.
But he had already missed one game with a soft tissue injury, and we'll never know if he would have similar issues pop up further into the season.
By all accounts Davenport is healthy and looked good during training camp. Heading into the season opener against the Green Bay Packers, he was asked if the outside chatter about his injury history bothers him.
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"Shoot, of course I care. Man, look, I got a heart,” Davenport said, according to Kory Woods of MLive. “My family reads stuff. And then there’s the other aspect: (expletive) em’. Honestly, I don’t want to say I get mad, but most people that talk (expletive), I will not trade places with.”
It's unfortunate Davenport's family ends up reading articles questioning his injury history and durability. But that analysis is not untruthful on its face, or (presumably) not entirely without full and proper context. That truthful analysis about his injury history should not, which doesn't mean all of it does not, credibly call his character into question.
If Davenport thinks reasonable criticism of his ability to stay healthy is wrong, that's his prerogative. But it doesn't diminish the idea he has a lot to prove this season, starting with simply being able to stay on the field.