Atlanta Falcons: Mike Davis is one of the elite power runners

One of the first signings the Atlanta Falcons made this past offseason was signing former Panthers running back, Mike Davis, to a two-year deal worth five and a half million dollars.

For the most part, fans loved the signing. It brought in a veteran who has bounced around the league but during last season made the most of the opportunity, after Christian McCaffrey went down with injury.

Falcons fans saw firsthand what he could do when the two teams played their first of two against each other. It seemed like the whole game it was a showing of Mike Davis running right through the talented linebackers of the Falcons. Hopefully, this is something that Davis will be dominant at during 2021.

Atlanta Falcons RB, Mike Davis, is among the elite bruisers in the game

Everyone knows about Derrick Henry, Nick Chubb, and Dalvin Cook, but most people outside the Falcons fanbase do not know much about Mike Davis.

Davis showed last year that he is one of the most difficult runners in the game to tackle.

Let’s look at the statistic from last season, according to Pro Football Reference Advanced Running Stats.

The top five players in the league, during 2020, when it comes simply to the most broken tackles in the league go as the following:

1. Derrick Henry (34)
2. Dalvin Cook (33)
3. David Montgomery (29)
4. Nick Chubb (21)
5. Mike Davis (21)

Surprise, surprise, Derrick Henry is number one in the league. The former Alabama running back is in a class of his own.

Next comes Dalvin Cook who possesses a stellar strength to speed combination, he just needs to stay healthy. After that, there is a bit of a surprise in David Montgomery, and then Nick Chubb, unsurprisingly.

Coming in at fifth in the entire NFL – with 21 total broken tackles – is Mike Davis, the new Falcons lead runner.

When you look at it further, the top four guys were given the football a lot more than Mike Davis in 2020.

Mike Davis was given the ball 25 times less than the next player on the list – Nick Chubb – and 213 times less than the top player on the list – Derrick Henry.

When you take the number of rushes per broken tackle, Mike Davis is actually number one in the entire NFL, with an average of 7.9.

To give you an idea of how impressive that is, Derrick Henry had an average of 11.1 rushes per broken tackle.

The one thing that needs to be realized, however, is that Henry was given a lot more rushes and that requires a ridiculous amount of durability. Mike Davis will never come close to being given the ball 378 times like Derrick Henry, but it is still impressive.

The second player in the league when it comes to rushes per broken tackle, is Antonio Gibson of the Washington Football Team, with an average of 8.5.

Mike Davis ended the year with a sizeable lead on the average amount of carries per broken tackle.

This should get Atlanta Falcons fans excited. It has become obvious that Arthur Smith wants to focus on the power running game this season. Mike Davis figures to have the biggest impact among any other player.