Jordan Davis has become an afterthought and it hasn’t mattered. Where does the Eagles rookie’s future stand?

It was 3:23 on Wednesday afternoon and Jordan Davis had to be somewhere at 3:30.

“You got seven minutes,” Fletcher Cox said as he walked by the rookie who was in the middle of an interview.

Davis and the Eagles’ other first-year defensive players were scheduled to sing Christmas carols to the entire staff at the NovaCare Complex. The massive lineman just needed a pair of appropriately sized red pajama bottoms.

“Reed, did you get me 3X?” Davis asked fellow rookie Reed Blankenship.

The safety did not. Blankenship could only find a 2XL.

“Alright, I’m going to have to squeeze into it,” Davis, listed at 6-foot-6, 336 pounds, said.

The Eagles’ No. 1 draft pick has had to adjust to much more than ill-fitted PJs in a whirlwind first season — especially of late. Since returning from an ankle sprain, Davis has lost the starting nose tackle spot and been moved to other positions he isn’t as accustomed to playing along the D-line.

Linval Joseph was signed last month two weeks into Davis’ four-week injury when the Eagles’ backups couldn’t get the job done. It was unclear at the time if the veteran would stay atop the depth chart once the rookie was back in the lineup.

But Joseph’s presence has been instrumental in improving the run defense, and since returning Davis has lined up over center for only three snaps.

“I think the plan all along was for me to only play the nose, but since Linval was here we have the flexibility to move me around,” Davis said earlier this week. “I guess with the weight loss I’m able to go [outside], too. You know, I don’t know why. I just kind of do it.”

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Davis said he lost 20 pounds during his stint on injured reserve with a high ankle sprain. He said he weighed as much as 355 pre-injury and was 343 as of Thursday. But the biggest reason he hasn’t logged as many snaps overall, or at the nose, may be that his ankle isn’t 100% recovered.

He tweaked it in his first game back and was on the field for only six snaps. He played 15 of 64 snaps (23%) the following week and 14 of 59 (24%) last week.

“An ankle like this is going to tweak,” Davis said. “And you’re not going to be 100% when you go back out there. If you wait until it’s 100%, I won’t be playing until six months from now.”

But considering how well Davis had played at nose tackle before the injury, the lack of playing time there has been a mild surprise. In his first seven games, 84% of his snaps (130 of 154) were in the middle. In the last three, there have been only 8% (3 of 35). Joseph, meanwhile, has been at the nose 95% (114 of 120) of the time.

On Wednesday, defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon didn’t directly answer why Davis’ role has changed. But he cited the increased defensive tackle rotation — veteran Ndamukong Suh was signed a day after Joseph — as one reason for his reduced playing time.

“We’ve got six guys up, so sometimes the snap counts, it’s hard to get everybody a bunch of snaps,” Gannon said. “But I like that we have six guys up because it keeps that room fresh.”

It’s hard to argue with the results. The Eagles defense has been consistently one of the better units all season, but aside from a few breakdowns over the last five games, the run defense has been solid since Joseph was brought into the fold.

The overall numbers don’t tell the full story, but keeping dangerous runners like the Colts’ Jonathan Taylor, the Titans’ Derrick Henry, the Giants’ Saquon Barkley, and the Bears’ Justin Fields from going off has benefited Gannon’s scheme preferences and limited explosive passing plays.

But where does that leave Davis?

“Everything is not going to be good all the time,” Cox said. “There are going to be challenges, especially coming off his injury. It’s about making sure he’s on top of taking care of that ankle.”

Davis has zero tackles since returning from injury. He wasn’t exactly lighting up the statistical scoreboard before the injury — he tallied 11 tackles — but his primary job at the nose is to occupy the two “A” gaps and keep O-linemen from getting to the second level in the run game.

Lining up at 4i-technique defensive tackle, and even sometimes at end, requires a different skill set. There should also be more opportunity for disruption. But it hasn’t clicked — yet.

“It’s new,” Davis said. “I’ve been playing the nose for my whole career. It’s a little scary at times. Not because of [the opponent], but because of the unfamiliar territory. But as the weeks go along I’m learning more and more.”

The Eagles have had the luxury of not having to rush their rookies. But with Davis relegated, each of their five draft picks is now a reserve. While Cam Jurgens and Nakobe Dean have defined future roles at center and inside linebacker, Davis’s is more of open-ended.

He can obviously play the nose, but the Eagles are starting the process of teaching him multiple spots, in part, to justify the first-round expenditure. And having Joseph, not to mention defensive tackles Cox, Suh, and Javon Hargrave, affords them the chance to give Davis a taste of the future.

“There’s a lot of space out there, more than in the middle. The nose is a very small box,” said Hargrave, who followed a similar path in terms of his usage. “But Jordan definitely has the tools to do both.”

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There will be a learning curve. It may take a few years before he has comfort in the various roles he may fill. And if Gannon gets a head-coaching job this offseason, as many expect, will his replacement bring a new scheme or will the Eagles want a similar defense to emphasize Davis’ strengths?

There’s been a collective effort from the veteran defensive tackles to mentor the 22-year-old. Cox took Davis under his wing from the start. He has focused on the conditioning requirements of playing a 17-game-plus season and on managing time.

“I don’t haze him. I don’t do nothing crazy to him,” Cox said. “Obviously, as a rookie you have rookie duties. … It’s mostly helping him understand how long the season is. That’s the biggest thing. Normally, he’s getting ready now to play a bowl game.”

Hargrave has assisted with on-field instruction since Davis’ switch to playing behind him on the right side. But Joseph has been the veteran in his ear the most, according to the others, at least since he arrived.

“My job here is to help this team be the best version of this Eagles team we can be, but at the same time he’s the future,” Joseph said. “I talk to him, I tell him all the tips, because at the end of the day, I want to help him because I know he’s going to be a star.”

They work on technique. Davis said he marvels at how heavy Joseph’s hands are at the point of contact. And they work on understanding blocking protections and how offenses attempt to neutralize the big man in the middle.

Joseph is a little shorter (6-4) and lighter (329), but Davis said he’s been trying to adopt some of his maintenance routines, like doing cardio or hitting the steam room immediately after practice.

“Linval has a lot of experience. I feel like you’re never perfect in a position,” Davis said. “So he teaches me even just about body movement. If I’m too tilted, he’ll help me so I’m not cut off. So it’s stuff like that, little things.”

Despite the various travails of being a rookie, or his recent setbacks, Davis has seemingly not been dismayed. He often has a smile on his face. He’s constantly singing and knows every dance move, according to defensive tackle Milton Williams.

“You might even see him on the sideline messing around,” Williams said. “Sometimes in the walk-through it might be, ‘Hey, buddy, come on.’ But the coaches are kind of used to it now. You just can’t take away his personality.

“Jordan — he ain’t got a care in the world.”

Davis said he’s always had a happy-go-lucky personality.

“It helps me through life, just having a positive outlook on life,” he said. “A lot of people know if I’m not smiling or I’m not having a good time, something’s wrong. That’s a good problem to have. People might hate it, people might love it, but at the end of the day I’m going to keep smiling.”

But there is an inner fire, his defensive tackle colleagues said.

“He’s hard on himself,” Cox said, “because he wants to be great.”

As for the Christmas carols, Davis downplayed his singing exploits. He may have the best voice of the defensive rookies, but it was a group effort.

“We practiced,” he said. “But it’s not like we were trying to get on The Voice or anything.”

Inquirer Eagles beat reporters EJ Smith and Josh Tolentino preview the team’s Week 16 game against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday at 3 p.m. Watch at Inquirer.com/EaglesGameday