Today marks 56 days before the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2025 regular season at home against the Arizona Cardinals. Coming off a 5-12 record last season, the Saints will go into their 59th year of existence with a new head coach in Kellen Moore. One returning face for Moore is linebacker Demario Davis, one of the greatest players in New Orleans history. Davis has worn No. 56 throughout his career with the team and is our Saints Player of the Day.
Name (age): Demario Davis (36)
Height, weight: 6-foot-2, 248 pounds
College: Arkansas State Red Wolves
Relative Athletic Score: 8.99
NFL career: 13 years (7 with Saints)
2025 salary cap hit: $6,923,000
An all-around star at Brandon High School, Davis was a standout wide receiver, basketball player, and high jumper on the track team. He’d ultimately choose to play football at Arkansas State in the Sun Belt Conference. Over his collegiate career, Davis racked up 7 sacks, 25 tackles for loss, 4 interceptions, 5 fumbles forced, and scored two defensive touchdowns. During his final two seasons with the Red Wolves, Davis twice won 1st Team all-Sun Belt conference accolades.
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The New York Jets snatched up Davis with a Round 4 selection in the 2012 NFL Draft. He’d play sparingly in every game as a reserve during his rookie season, but was entrenched as a starter by 2013. Davis was second among Jets defenders with 106 tackles that season, beginning an incredible streak of tackling proficiency. Over the last 12 years, Davis has had at least 90 tackles every season with 10 campaigns of over 100 stops, including the last eight straight. Davis played his first four years in New York before signing with the Cleveland Browns as a free agent in 2016.
Despite a productive year with the Browns, Cleveland traded Davis back to the Jets during the 2017 offseason. After another strong year with the Jets in 2017, Davis again hit free agency. This time, he was signed by New Orleans. It wasn’t a move that made big waves in national circles or with the average fan, but it was one that paid immediate dividends for the Saints defense. Davis led New Orleans with 110 tackles in 2018, including 11 for loss and 5 sacks with 4 passes broken up. The addition of Davis helped elevate the New Orleans defense into one of the top units in the NFL for the next five seasons.
Davis was criminally overlooked for All-Pro and Pro Bowl recognition through most of his career. That finally changed in 2019 with 1st Team All-Pro honors and 2nd Team All-Pro recognition from 2020 to 2023. He was also voted to consecutive Pro Bowls in 2022 and 2023. In seven years with the Saints, Davis has averaged 116 tackles per season along with 31 sacks, 72 stops for loss, 3 interceptions, and 45 passes broken up.
More than just filling up the stat sheet, Demario Davis also has elite instincts and awareness that puts him among the NFL’s best all-around defenders. It’s those traits that should help the entire New Orleans defense adapt quickly to the new scheme of coordinator Brandon Staley. Davis is one of the best players in the history of the Saints franchise. Even as the team’s oldest player, he’s shown that he still has plenty of top-level football left.
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This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Countdown to Kickoff: Demario Davis is the Saints Player of Day 56