Detroit Lions: Jeff Davidson; Lions’ secret weapon

Jeff Davidson has a history of successful running games and should be able to help the Lions take the necessary steps forward to take this offense to a whole new level.

By Zack Moran
July 8, 2018

Stop me if you have heard this one before; the Detroit Lions’ running game has been atrocious for a while now. It seems like you can’t go a day without that being said from everyone concerning the Lions. The Lions have signed LeGarrette Blount and drafted Kerryon Johnson this year. They also drafted Frank Ragnow to solidify the offensive line and Tyrell Crosby for much-needed depth. One move that deserves more attention; the hire of Jeff Davidson as the offensive line coach.

When Jim Caldwell was removed as head coach, there was only one other coach to fired along with him; and that was former offensive line coach Ron Prince. With all of the upgrades along the line, Prince was never able to put everything together successfully. Some reports even came out saying he was not well-regarded in the locker room and he rubbed the veterans the wrong way. In lieu of Prince’s firing, Jeff Davidson became the new offensive line coach when Matt Patricia was brought in as head coach.

Davidson’s rushing success

Jeff Davidson has had some success through his time as an NFL coach. His most recent stint with the Denver Broncos as the offensive line coach; they averaged 115.8 yards per game on the ground which came in at 12th in the league. His other stints with the Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Vikings, and the San Diego Chargers; all featured a strong rushing attack.

My biggest reason for optimism for Davidson is the consistent rushing success wherever he goes. He was able to take bottom-ranked rushing teams and transform them into a respectable rushing team time and time again. If you want to get an idea of Davidson’s track record; check out Nate Atkins from MLive.com article. At the end of the day, through Davidson’s time as an offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, offenses averaged 10th most yards per carry in the league. Also, had multiple 100-yard rushers in a season, sometimes even in the same game. He will be the much-needed spark that will bring the rushing game out of purgatory.

Help to the passing game

Along with helping the running game, he might be able to solve the sack problem as well. Matthew Stafford was sacked 47 times last year. For the amount of money the Lions are investing in Stafford, that is completely unacceptable. Sacks are drive killers and run the risk of your quarterback getting injured. We need Stafford to stay healthy in order to have a successful season is a complete understatement. If Davidson is able to bring a simpler block scheme into the mix, it will allow Stafford to do what he does best in the passing game and shred defenses with his arm.

Also with an already solid passing attack in place, the running game just needs to be average. It’ll make the offense more well-rounded and make defenses respect every aspect of the Lions’ offense instead of just the passing game.

Davidson is the Lions’ secret weapon when it comes to the offense. The number of resources invested into the rushing attack and Davidson’s successful running pedigree, the Lions should have no problem running the ball this year. Also, with the hopes of keeping Stafford cleaner this year, he will help this offense become one of the best in the league.

New o-line coaches bringing a unique perspective to Lions

May 22, 2018
By Tim Twentyman

Having both played in the NFL, new offensive line coaches Jeff Davidson and Hank Fraley bring a unique perspective to the Lions.

As the Lions progress through the offseason training program, the offensive linemen are learning new ways to do things with the addition of new o-line coaches Jeff Davidson and Hank Fraley (assistant).

In Davidson and Fraley, the Lions have hired two line coaches with extensive NFL playing experience, which is something veteran T.J. Lang can already tell brings a little different element to the table.

“Obviously, Jeff is a guy who’s been around for a long time,” Lang said. “He’s a former player himself, so he understands what it’s like sitting in those chairs. I think it’s been a great addition to the team.

“I think both him and Hank, the assistant o-line coach, Hank is a guy that played a long time, too.”

Davidson played for the Broncos and Saints over a five-year career from 1990-94. He moved into coaching in 1995 with the Saints after a shoulder injury ended his playing career.

Fraley’s playing days spanned a decade with the Eagles, Browns and Rams. He finished his playing career in 2010 before getting into coaching with the Chargers in 2012.

“I think that having someone with a lot of their own personal experiences can help me and younger guys in our locker room getting our technique down, and a lot of questions he’ll be able to answer,” veteran Graham Glasgow said of the addition of Fraley as Davidson’s assistant upfront. “And I think that he, especially for the centers and the interior lineman, is a very good resource to make sure we can be the best we can be.”

There are a lot of very good NFL coaches who never played a down in the NFL as a player, but those players that do make the transition to coaching have a unique perspective.

Davidson played both tackle and guard, and Fraley played center, so the pair have every position upfront covered.

Lang said the players are still learning the new terminology, blocking schemes and exactly how the new coaches want things run, but everything has been “very positive” to this point.

A new message can’t be a bad thing after the Lions struggled upfront last season with injuries and consistency. Detroit’s rushing attack finished last in the NFL last season, and quarterback Matthew Stafford was sacked 47 times, second most in the NFL (Jacoby Brissett, 52).

“I would say that Jeff seems like a fantastic guy,” Glasgow said. “He’s a very down to earth coach and I think that he’s somebody who will help our position group improve and get better throughout the year.”

Lions banking on Jeff Davidson to boost feeble run game

By John Niyo
March 4, 2018

Indianapolis – Matt Patricia used to be an offensive lineman. But he made a name for himself coaching defense in the NFL.

And now that he’s a head coach, one of his most important hires shortly after accepting the Lions’ top job was to bring in veteran offensive line coach Jeff Davidson. The two worked briefly together in New England when Patricia joined the Patriots’ staff in 2004.

But at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, Patricia spoke highly of Davidson, a 24-year NFL coaching veteran who most recently served as the Denver Broncos’ offensive line coach.

“He knows me, and he knows what I want,” Patricia said. “I have a great relationship with him. Jeff and I worked together a long time ago. I think he’s a phenomenal coach. He’s very smart, Jeff is very analytical about the game. Really an outstanding coach in relating to the players.”

That’s a necessity after the past few seasons in Detroit, when the Lions rushing attack ranked as arguably the NFL’s worst with Ron Prince coaching the line while also holding a dual title as assistant head coach.

The expectation is that Davidson, a former All-Big Ten lineman at Ohio State in the late 1980s, will do more than just revamp the Lions’ blocking scheme. He’ll also develop a better rapport with his offensive line group.

“He understands when he needs to be hard on ’em, and he understands when he needs to love ’em up,” Patricia said. “And he can just relate on a whole different level than I can, because I never played at this level, and Jeff has.”

Why the Lions believe in new offensive line coach Jeff Davidson

New Lions offensive line coach Jeff Davidson, right, knows how to connect with players well. (AP File Photo)

By Kyle Meinke
February 12, 2018

ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions added a couple offensive linemen in the early rounds of Bob Quinn's first draft, and the unit didn't get better. So they added two more in free agency last year. And then they got worse.

Sure, injuries hurt. There's no escaping that. But their offensive line coach also didn't do a good job. There's no escaping that either.

There's a reason Ron Prince was the only assistant fired when the season ended. And there's a reason Jeff Davidson was hired to replace him.

Prince was an old-school coach. That's one way of saying he was intense, and some would say to a fault. People who have been in that room say his message wasn't getting through.

In Davidson, the Lions get the opposite in terms of temperament.

"I think he understands the players," Lions GM Bob Quinn said. "He understand what offensive linemen go through. You can't treat everyone exactly the same in a room that big. It's one of the biggest rooms in the building, because you've got five guys that are starters, you have to have least eight on the 53, probably 10 total including practice squad. So your room has 10 guys in it. The only other room quite that big is probably defensive line or secondary.

"So you got to have a presence. And you can't treat the 10-year vet the same as the rookie backup left tackle that you're trying to develop. So you got to have a real way to connect with these guys. And I think Jeff has that."

One reason for that is he's played the position himself. He was an all-Big Ten guard at Ohio State, and was selected a captain as a senior in 1989. (His father, Jim, was also a captain for the Buckeyes in 1964. They were the school's first father-son paring to be named captain.)

Jeff Davidson was a fifth-round pick of the Broncos in 1990, and played five seasons in the league. So he understands what the guys are going through. He empathizes in ways other position coaches can't. And it helps.

"He has a good feel of when to really grind the guys, and when to back off a little bit," Quinn said. "My mentality is -- and I think Matt (Patricia) would say the same thing -- is everything starts up front. So you expect a lot out of those guys. You want them to be physical for 70 plays a game. So you really got to be able to manage those guys, and what you do in practice, what drills you do in practice, how that relates to what you're doing in the team setting, and what you're doing in the meeting rooms. Jeff brings a wealth of experience with that."

Former Lions offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz knows this as well as anyone. He played under Davidson at two stops -- in Minnesota, where Davidson was the offensive line coach, and again in Carolina, where he was the offensive coordinator.

"He played football, and knows the game well," Schwartz said. "I think when you have a coach who has played the game before, they just have a different perspective. They're a calming influence because they know things happen during the game that, you know, you get beat sometimes. The defense sometimes outwits you. It happens. And the coaches that I've played for that have played the game are generally, like, 'Well, all right, we got beat on that play.' They're not going to yell and scream as much. They're not going to nitpick as much."

Davidson got his coaching start with New Orleans in 1995. He joined New England as the tight ends coach in 1997, then worked his way up to assistant offensive line coach in 1998 and served as the tight ends/assistant offensive line coach from 2002-04.

That means he worked alongside incoming Lions coach Matt Patricia for one year, in 2004, and it was Patricia who replaced him as assistant offensive line coach when Davidson left for Cleveland in 2005. He went on to serve as the offensive line coach for the Browns (2005), Vikings (2011-15), Chargers (2016) and Broncos (2017), plus had stints as an offensive coordinator in Cleveland (2006) and Carolina (2007-2010).

In Detroit, he inherits a talented group that has struggled to meet expectations. Quinn added left tackle Taylor Decker (first round) and left guard Graham Glasgow (third round) in his first draft, then signed right guard T.J. Lang and right tackle Rick Wagner last year.

But the Lions allowed 47 sacks in 2017, which was second most in the league, and paved the way for the worst rushing attack in the game. Some of that falls on the running backs of course. The Lions really suffered by not having a true between-the-tackles threat.

But they also suffered from some of the worst run blocking in the league. According to Football Outsiders, they were the very worst.

Then again, they lost Decker to a shoulder injury in May. And that proved to be a portent of things to come. Four-fifths of the line missed multiple games in 2017, forcing the Lions to start 10 different combinations up front. The top five started just two games together, and played just 95 snaps.

But the good news is everyone except center Travis Swanson is due back next year. Swanson wasn't great anyway, and there is a growing belief that Glasgow will slide into the center position in 2018. And with so much experience back, plus a new voice to lead them, there is hope in Allen Park that the offensive line is headed for a bounce back season.

"Offensive line-wise, I think we have good personnel," Quinn said. "I think there might be some changes, but the core group are going to be back at core positions, and I would hope those guys would improve. Some of those guys had injuries last year, and obviously we were without our left tackle for half the year. If a little of each of those things improve, the whole thing is going to be better."

Broncos hire Jeff Davidson as OL coach, hold onto Eric Studesville

By Josh Alper

January 14, 2017

The offensive coaching staff under new Broncos head coach Vance Joseph is continuing to come together.

The Broncos hired Mike McCoy as offensive coordinator and his offensive line coach when he was the head coach of the Chargers will be coming to Denver as well. The team announced Saturday that they have hired Jeff Davidson as their offensive line coach.

Davidson played for the Broncos from 1990-93 and has been a coach in the league since 1995. He was the offensive coordinator for the Panthers from 2007-10 and the offensive line coach for the Vikings for 2011-15 before making the move to San Diego to work for McCoy.

The Broncos haven’t made an announcement regarding running backs coach Eric Studesville, but Mike Klis of KUSA reported Friday that he will remain on the staff. Studesville had an interview with the Jets for their offensive coordinator vacancy, but Rich Cimini of ESPN.com reports the Jets want to talk to other candidates and Studesville apparently opted for a sure thing.

Klis also reports that Luke Richesson will remain on board as the team’s strength and conditioning coach.

Vikings' Jeff Davidson doing a "marvelous job"

Top 25 Vikings of 2014: No. 7 OG Brandon Fusco

BY DAN ZINSKI

August 1, 2014

The offensive guard from Slippery Rock has been one of the great success stories of Rick Spielman’s tenure. Drafted in the sixth round in 2011, the unheralded Fusco has developed gradually over the years into one of the better interior linemen in the NFL.

The numbers don’t lie. When PFF ranked the 2013 offensive lines, the Vikings finished sixth, and it was largely thanks to the right side of Phil Loadholt and Fusco. PFF called Fusco “a legitimate All-Pro candidate.”

You didn’t need the PFF scores to know that the Vikings’ run blocking on the right side was near-dominating. It wasn’t just Adrian Peterson either. Those guys even madeMatt Asiata look good.

The Vikings have already locked up Phil Loadholt, arguably a top-five right tackle, to a long-term contract. Fusco is a free agent after the season but you have to believe the Vikings will extend him before he can hit the market. He, Loadholt and center John Sullivan are core players for this franchise.

Not bad for the sixth round pick out of tiny Slippery Rock who once seemed on the verge of losing his job to Geoff Schwartz. A tip of the cap to Vikings offensive line coach  Jeff Davidson, who has done a marvelous job developing Fusco, Sullivan and Loadholt. There’s a reason the Vikings decided to bring Davidson back.

Minnesota Vikings Hire Jeff Davidson To Coach Offensive Line

over 1 year ago: Carolina Panthers head coach John Fox, left, and offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson, right, look on during the NFL football team's summer session in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday, June 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

By Christopher Gates

January 20, 2011

I missed this move with the Johnson hiring, but the Vikings are continuing to add to their coaching staff.

The Vikings have now added former Carolina Panthers' offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson to the staff as their new offensive line coach, according to 1500 ESPN in Minneapolis. Davidson played his college ball as an offensive guard for the. . .dramatic pause. . .Ohio State University from 1986 to 1989, and was All Big-Ten as a senior. In fact, Jeff and his father Jim who also attended Ohio State and was an All-American tackle in 1964, were the first father-son captain duo in Buckeye history.

He spent five years in the NFL, four with the Denver Broncos, who selected him in the fifth round of the 1990 NFL Draft, and one with the New Orleans Saints. After that, he coached with the Saints as a volunteer assistant in 1995, and an offensive assistant in 1996. He was hired by the New England Patriots as their tight ends coach in 1997, and from 1998 to 2004 also served as an assistant offensive line coach. In 2005, he followed Romeo Crennel to Cleveland as their offensive line coach, and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2006 after then-coordinator Maurice Carthon was fired from that position.

In 2007, he moved on to the Carolina Panthers as the team's offensive coordinator, and has been there until today, when he joined the Minnesota Vikings.

Welcome to Minnesota, Coach Davidson. Now the Vikings have filled out just about their entire staff, and can really start the move towards 2011.

Panthers' Coach Davidson does "exceptional job calling the plays"

September 20, 2009

By Steve Reed

ATLANTA — Coach John Fox insisted Carolina’s 28-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons wasn’t a moral victory for the Carolina Panthers, even though it sure sounded like one in the locker room.

Carolina’s offense, in particular quarterback Jake Delhomme, played much better on Sunday at the Georgia Dome, but the Panthers still turned the ball over twice and had a punt blocked resulting in only their second 0-2 start in the Fox era, leaving them two games behind the Falcons and New Orleans Saints in the NFC South.

Fox said “there’s no consolation prize in this league — you either win or you lose,” but several players seemed encouraged that the Panthers took a step forward — at least offensively — after a dismal seven-turnover performance in a 38-10 loss to Philadelphia in the season opener.

“There’s nothing that’s good in a loss, but I’m happy for Jake and I’m happy for our offense a little bit after we did so poorly last week. At least we let us have a chance to be in the game this week,” said offensive tackle Jordan Gross. “(Last year) was a different story and we’re figuring out who we are in ‘09 and I think we moved a little bit in the right direction today.”

“Offensively, it was night and day,” said wide receiver Steve Smith, who caught eight passes for 131 yards.

Smith called it an “important” game for Delhomme, who completed 25 of 41 passes for 308 yards, and the offense which put up 440 yards.

“It was probably the most important thing as far as all of the criticism we got as an offense,” Smith said.

And yet, the bottom line is the Panthers are 0-2.

“I don’t think it’s a head for the hills, or whatever words you want to attach to it to make it more than it is,” Smith said. “I think Jeff Davidson did an exceptional job calling the plays and we put ourselves offensively in good positions and Jake made some clutch throws.”

Carolina's Jeff Davidson the best up-and-coming offensive coordinator

From Football Relativity's "The best coordinators in the NFL"

August 26, 2009

Who are the best coordinators in the NFL?

Over on www.footballrelativity.com, we spent plenty of time and bandwidth trying to figure out which NFL team has the best combination of offensive and defensive coordinators. You can check that post out over there, but we wanted to take some of what we learned in the research for that post to create a list of some of the best and most important coordinators in the NFL in 2009.

Best up-and-coming offensive coordinator - Jeff Davidson, Carolina - Davidson isn't the kind of coordinator who gets a lot of attention for designing a multifaceted passing game that lights up the scoreboard and makes fans ooh and aah. (Think of new head coaches like Josh McDaniels or Todd Haley.) But Davidson is brutally effective in designing a running game that can work. First in Cleveland and for the last two years in Carolina, he's had teams that can run the ball effectively. His scheme fits the Panthers' personnel perfectly, and if he continues to have the kind of success calling running plays that he has had, he'll become a hot name in head-coaching hunts in a few years.

Jeff Davidson Is the Straw That Stirs the Panthers Offense

December 25, 2008 - 10:56 PM

Steve Reed

CHARLOTTE - As the Carolina Panthers stumbled toward the finish line last season, there was some debate over the merits of hiring Jeff Davidson as offensive coordinator 11 months earlier.

Well, those days are long gone.

Nobody is complaining about the former Bill Belichick understudy anymore.

Carolina's offense is on a roll like we've never seen before in 14 years, scoring at least 28 points in each of the last six games.

They've never been stronger on the ground, rushing for a franchise record 2,203 yards and 29 touchdowns. With 19 points Sunday against New Orleans, the Panthers will surpass 400 points for the season, something they've only done once before (1999). That's a far cry from the Carolina team that scored more than 28 points only twice all of last season and finished 26th in the league in scoring and 29th in total offense.

The only conclusion is that the problem last year wasn't Davidson, but that rather the fact that he was handcuffed by the fact he didn't have a quarterback to work with after Jake Delhomme went down with an elbow injury in Week 3.

Carolina's offense started well in 2007, but the injury to Delhomme set them back more than anyone can realize and the Panthers were never able to recover while playing musical chairs at quarterback all season.

Consistency at the quarterback position this season, along with some key upgrades at wide receiver (Muhsin Muhammad), running back (Jonathan Stewart), right tackle (Jeff Otah) and right guard (Keydrick Vincent) have the Panthers poised to finish 12-4 and win the NFC South if they can defeat the Saints on Sunday at the Louisiana Superdome.

Delhomme didn't want to get into comparisons between Davidson and the man he replaced, Dan Henning. But he admitted things are much different than they were his previous five seasons in Carolina.

"The quarterback has more on his plate, so to speak, where Dan's we really didn't," Delhomme said. "We have a lot more. We're heavily involved in the run game checks and things like that. But that's what's great about this offense - you try to get us in the right spot and the right situation."

Delhomme said different personnel - most notably a bigger, more physical offensive line - has been a big difference, too.

"I think Jeff is doing a great job," Delhomme said. "It's going well so far. We just need to keep it going."

The star of the offense has clearly been running back DeAngelo Williams, who has already established a team record with 20 touchdowns this season and needs 108 yards to break Stephen Davis' single-season franchise rush-ing record.

Williams attributes his success to getting more comfortable in his second year under Davidson.

"When I got a better understanding of the new concepts it was toward the end of the year because we had the quarterback issue," Williams said. "We had quarterbacks going down so he didn't fully give us the whole offense. We were kind of hindered a little bit.

"We finally got in the groove in the offseason and he gave us the whole playbook. We got the concepts down, got everything down. Our offensive line started gelling together and understood what they were doing up front. When I got a better understanding of the offense, them getting comfortable with me and me getting comfortable with them, we just all pulled it together. We got our run game, our passing game and everything going together."

Williams said he feels like the Panthers are in a zone with their play calling.

"Jeff is doing some great play calling down the stretch," Williams said. "He's getting us into situations where we can be successful. I think we're being more consistent this year than we have the past two years. I think that's the big change that I see, the consistency."

The Panthers have been particularly effective in the red zone, scoring touchdowns on 66.7 percent of their trips inside the opponent's 20-yard line - the best mark in the NFC.

And while the Panthers may be viewed as a "three yards and a cloud of dust" offense, that's not necessarily true.
Williams has six touchdown runs of 30 yards or more, one shy of Jim Brown's single-season record set in 1958.

"He's finishing well," Delhomme said.

Now the Panthers offense hopes to do the same heading into the postseason.

Like Father, Like Son

Norm Clarke
Sports Lines

April 24, 1990

* Like father, like son: Jeff Davidson, the third player drafted by the Broncos, is the son of former Ohio State All-American Jim Davidson. The elder Davidson captained Woody Hayes’ 1964 club and was the Buffalo Bills’ No. 1 draft pick.

* The scouting report on Davidson, according to Joel Buchsbaum’s Scout’s Notebook ’90: “Very Smart. Honor student in electrical engineering. Tough. Plays hard. Has worked to improve. Gets better each season. Has good natural strength and some athletic ability.”