Demario Davis has been an ageless wonder for the New Orleans Saints, but nothing lasts forever.
For the first time since 2018, Demario Davis has failed to be named a first- or second-team All-Pro. Outside of J.T. Gray, who made second-team All-Pro, Davis and rookie punter Matthew Hayball were the only Saints to get any All-Pro votes. Two voters put Davis on their first team.
Davis came to the New Orleans Saints from the New York Jets at 29 years old, with no Pro Bowl or All-Pro teams under his belt. When the calendar hit on his 30th birthday, Davis shifted gears into a different mode.
His birthday is in January, and Davis had his season-high in tackles and lone interception of the 2018 season in the playoffs after turning 30 years old.
The following season Davis made first-team All-Pro. It took a little bit longer for the Pro Bowls to start rolling in. From that 2019 season until this year, Davis made five consecutive All-Pro teams. He was a second-team member from 2020-2023.
Davis may have had 136 tackles, a career-high, but he didn’t seem like himself. If you reflect back to last offseason, one of the biggest reasons Davis was being called one of the best linebackers in the NFL was his ability to get behind the line of scrimmage.
Davis recorded a career-high 6.5 sacks in each of the last two seasons. That number dropped to two sacks. Take out his three-game rookie season, Davis’ two quarterback hits are the lowest of his career. Davis only racked up five tackles for loss. He hasn’t dropped under 10 any other season in New Orleans.
Davis blitzed 38 times this year, compared to 39 times in 2023 and 26 times in 2022. The production simply has been different and likely contributed to the snapping of his five-year All-Pro streak.