Demario Davis rejoined a familiar face in a familiar place for the next stop in his long, impressive NFL journey.
After eight years with the New Orleans Saints, the 37-year-old linebacker signed with the New York Jets for a third stint with the team that drafted him. And this time, he's back with coach Aaron Glenn.
“Once my agents let me know that the Jets were an option, it was a no-brainer,” Davis said Thursday during a video call with reporters.
Davis was a third-round pick by New York in 2012 out of Arkansas State and Glenn a personnel scout during the linebacker's first two NFL seasons. The two just missed each other when Davis played in Cleveland in 2016 and Glenn left the Browns to join New Orleans' staff as an assistant. But they were back together again in 2018 when Davis left the Jets for a second time to play with the Saints.
“He was a big reason I ended up in New Orleans,” Davis recalled. “And now here, I didn’t even need to have a conversation with him to be all on board. And to get here and see what it is that he’s building and the culture and just to feel the energy in the building, just a ton of excitement.”
Davis, who signed a two-year contract worth $22 million, with $15 million guaranteed, will be counted on to help provide leadership for a team looking to bounce back from a 3-14 season and trying to snap the NFL's longest active playoff drought at 15 seasons.
“I think he’s preaching all the right messages and it sounds like there’s a locker room of guys who are bought into what he's coaching and we’re just being brought in to help reinforce that,” Davis said. "If anything, use our voice to turn up the volume, because at the end of the day, ships go into daylight because you hold on and hold steady through the storm. And that’s all we need to do. He has the vision, he has the mission.
“And all we've got to do is hold this thing steady and we’re going to come out the other side and I think it’s going to shock the world.”
Davis isn't the only Jets newcomer on defense having a reunion of sorts in free agency.
Defensive tackle David Onyemata signed a one-year, $10.5 million deal that includes $9.7 million guaranteed after spending the last three seasons in Atlanta. He played his first seven seasons with the Saints, including five with Glenn as an assistant coach and three with Davis as a teammate.
The 33-year-old Onyemata also called it “a no-brainer” to join the Jets and play for Glenn. A video clip made the rounds on social media after New York beat Atlanta last November with Onyemata finding Glenn on the field and thanking him for helping “change my life” with words of wisdom when they'd chat before meetings with the Saints.
“Just being on the same team and just communicating with him,” Onyemata said, “that bond kind of got stronger over the years.”
Onyemata also looks forward to playing again with Davis as teammates.
“We’ve got a great relationship over the years,” Onyemata said. “Just communication, being on the same page, and just getting the opportunity to do that again and be out there on the field with him again will be great.”
Glenn acknowledged he's changing things up and will call the defense this season, but he hired Brian Duker as his coordinator to oversee the operation. Duker comes from Miami, where he was the secondary coach and pass game coordinator for two years. Among the players he worked with regularly was safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who was acquired by the Jets for a seventh-round pick earlier this week — and then signed him to a three-year, $40 million contract extension — to anchor their secondary.
“I think we have all the necessary parts to be a really, really great defense under the guidance of AG, Duker and those guys,” Fitzpatrick said. "So there’s a lot to look forward to.”
The three-time All-Pro is a native of Old Bridge, New Jersey, and after playing in Miami and Pittsburgh his first eight seasons, this is a bit of a homecoming for the 29-year-old Fitzpatrick.
“I still have a lot of friends and family back here," he said. “I’ve been to the Jets' facility multiple times when I was younger when I competed in the Nike High School camps and whatnot. So it’s a lot of flashbacks being back in this building.”
He also will play his home games at MetLife Stadium, the site of the 2014 NJSIAA non-public group 4 championship in which Fitzpatrick and St. Peter’s Prep beat Paramus Catholic 34-18.
"So it’s a full-circle moment, for sure,” he said.
It's not quite what quarterback Geno Smith is experiencing after being acquired from Las Vegas in a trade 13 years after the Jets drafted him in the second round. But reunions create a sense of comfort on and off the field.
“It’s very surreal seeing familiar faces,” a smiling Davis said. “Man, it really feels like coming back home.”
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
