Marcus Davenport's first foray into free agency began on March 15, when the former Saints first-round pick was officially able to negotiate with other teams. His time on the open market lasted a matter of hours.
The Vikings agreed to a one-year deal with the pass rusher that night, putting him in line to earn as much as $13 million if he can stay on the field for all 17 games. When Davenport spoke with Kevin O'Connell, he got a charge from the head coach's excitement about him.
"Just the energy that I got from him, I wouldn't say it's [like that from] many teams," Davenport said in a conference call on Thursday. "In particular, [he] stood out as somebody that I would love to go play for."
In some ways, it was a salve for the 26-year-old as he moved past a disappointing season.
While Davenport's 34 quarterback pressures last season were consistent with his numbers from 2021 and 2020 (42 and 34 pressures, respectively), his sack numbers were not. He had nine sacks in 2021. Last year, the sack of Kirk Cousins he split with Cameron Jordan in London was his only one.
"I'm still upset," Davenport said. "But you know, that's just fuel for the future. I kind of go over my play and see that I didn't capitalize, as much as I would say that [I wanted to]. I had some success in matchups and was putting pressure [on the quarterback], but I wasn't necessarily being the smartest player to know when to capitalize and how to capitalize, using my teammates, using the scheme and just winning overall."
The Vikings introduced Davenport and former Packers defensive end Dean Lowry to reporters on Thursday, as two pieces of a pass rush that still could be in transition. Both players are signed to one-year contracts, while Danielle Hunter is playing on the final year of a deal slated to pay him just $5.5 million this season and Za'Darius Smith reportedly asked the team to release him before the start of free agency.
While there's still time for the Vikings' pass rushing personnel to shift before training camp this summer, they currently have more pass rushing configurations available to them than they've enjoyed in a while, with Davenport, Hunter, Smith and D.J. Wonnum in the edge rushing group to go with Lowry and Jonathan Bullard at defensive end.