A great Davis link and Morstead's updated cap number

Morstead's cap numbers came in today and his new cap number this year is $2.65 mil, saving us $2.2 mil in space.

That puts us at about $5.5 mil in space before counting Okafor (still waiting on numbers), but I imagine he'll eat around $2.5-3.5 mil of that leaving us with about $2-3 mil in space. If you take out the effective hold on the rookies that becomes $4-5 mil.

And there are still plenty of moves we can make, like restructuring Jordan and Warford for a combined $9.7 mil in extra space.

And on to Davis:

Demario Davis Goodness

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Enter Davis. When you watch him, the thing that stands out the most is his ability to diagnose plays and get to the ball. This especially shows in the running game, where he is quick to hit gaps and make things happen. His ability to read and react allowed him to make 37 tackles within 3 yards or fewer of the line of scrimmage. Klein had nine.

There needs to be an adjustment made because Davis played 448 snaps against the run compared to Klein’s 238. But even if you double Klein’s numbers, he’s still well short of Davis’ production. How Davis might help in this regard is clear.

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We had another guy that made a bunch of tackles but were 5+ yards downfield. Klein, with his poor coverage and inability to attack the line, reminds me a ton of Lofton.

This guy is more like Vilma and he'll go get it. He doesn't wait for it to come to him.

He also talks about how he's REALLY worked on his coverage the last few years, admitting he had poor technique and just tried to use speed early in his career:

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“I think early in my years, I suffered a bit from technique when it came to covering but the past few years I have been able to hone in on that, which is really not just speed, but a lot of technique that goes into it and harness the speed that you have and not overrunning angles and things like that,” Davis said. “Speed has always been a strength of mine, but even more so, I have polished up the edges of it and putting in the proper technique.”

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He also says how that's helped him become a better blitzer:

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Not only did Davis have five sacks last season, but he also paired it with 25 pressures and a good amount of quarterback hits. Klein had two sacks and nine pressures. Granted, the way both players were used might be a factor in the varying rates, but it is again easy to see how Davis could offer a boost.

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I had big concerns about Klein when we signed him, but I was willing to let it play out.

You could see after those first two games things started clicking and he was lining everyone up right and making adjustments, but he was always a step slow in coverage and he would often just let the run come to him.

When Te'o stepped in after he went down you could really see the difference in a guy that attacks the run vs. one that let's it come to him.

Davis is that guy that attacks. He's relentless pursuing the ball and hitting the gaps and doesn't stop until the whistle. This is the type of Mike we've been missing since Vilma got hurt.

I feel confident we have our new leader in the middle, whereas last year it was hollow hope we didn't make another mistake (which we did).

Now if we can get a true cover LB this LB corp could actually be a strength instead of the Achilles Heel it's been since Vilma went down.