Geoff Robins/CFL.ca
TORONTO — Wherever he has gone during his CFL career, defensive lineman Ja’Gared Davis has only experienced success.
Since entering the league back in 2016, Davis has been a force in the trenches and has been a key part of two separate franchises — helping each make it to a championship game.
“Hamilton’s defence was a multi-pronged attack last year, but Ja’Gared Davis was near the front of that charge,” CFL.ca senior writer Chris O’Leary said about the pass-rusher. “He gets that 6-1, 238-pound body on quarterbacks and running backs and impacts games week after week.
“He told Postmedia’s Danny Austin at the Grey Cup in Calgary this past year that he doesn’t care about accolades. His opponents know who they have nightmares about. Davis plays to win and provides nightmare fuel among the way.”
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Hamilton Tiger-Cats defensive lineman Ja’Gared Davis rests in between plays during the 107th Grey Cup presented by Shaw. (Dave Chidley/CFL.ca)
Davis has only been in the league for four seasons, but he’s proven over that span that no matter where he goes, success follows.
The 29-year-old spent his first three seasons in the Canadian Football League as a member of the Calgary Stampeders. Over that span, Davis appeared in three straight Grey Cups.
He’d take home his first championship with the Stamps in 2018. After hitting the open market just a few short months later, Davis opted to head out East and join a Hamilton side that was brimming with upside on both sides of the ball and had a new, exciting head coach at the helm.
Playing alongside the likes of Dylan Wynn, Ted Laurent and Adrian Tracy during the season, Davis flourished — as did the Tiger-Cats’ defence as a whole.
For the majority of the year, the hype was centred around Willie Jefferson and Charleston Hughes. Meanwhile, Davis was flying under the radar and posting arguably the best season of his CFL career. He finished with 54 tackles, 13 sacks — which was the second-best total in the league behind only Hughes’ 16 — and three forced fumbles.
Davis registered a sack in four of the Tabbies’ final five games of the year. He showed consistency throughout the entire campaign, with his best performance of the season coming early on. In Week 3 against Montreal, he finished with seven tackles and three sacks — a game-high.
The Southern Methodist product continued to be a menace during the postseason. In the Eastern Final against the Edmonton Eskimos, Davis posted six tackles and a sack on the afternoon. Once Hamilton made it all the way to the 107th Grey Cup presented by Shaw, Davis didn’t come up with a sack, but he still had five tackles in the biggest game of the year.
Davis was named a divisional All-Star for the first time in 2019 after helping the Hamilton defence finish top five league-wide in both passing yards (270.3) and rushing yards (95.0) per game as well as sacks (54).
The Crockett, Texas native is one to keep an eye on as free agency nears. He has been ranked the fourth pending free agent on CFL.ca behind only Jefferson and quarterbacks Matt Nichols and Zach Collaros.
Hamilton will likely be doing everything in its power to keep one of the pillars of its defence in town. However, if he does choose to test his options in free agency, there will be no shortage of suitors. His track record of success with both the Stamps and Ticats will have teams salivating over the possibility of adding the veteran.
