Eagles draft pick Jordan Davis is just a sweet kid beneath the imposing frame

Jordan Davis’ mother said she plans on moving to Philadelphia to live with or near her son — a final decision has yet to be made about cohabitation, Shay Allen said — to help shield the good-natured Eagles top draft pick from exploitative outside forces.

“He’s genuinely sweet almost to the point where I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, this world is so mean. Jordan, we got to have some sermon about people,’” Allen said Friday. “Because he wants to help everybody. He always wants to make everybody feel happy about themselves.

“I just know that people are going to take advantage of that type of thing.”

While it might be hard to imagine anyone attempting to cross the 6-foot-6, 341-pound defensive tackle, Allen said that underneath her son’s prodigious size lies a soft heart. She said she knew about Philly’s reputation and the criticisms professional athletes often have to endure from local sports fans.

But Allen said she felt confident that Davis could handle life under the microscope here. Few could fault a mother for wanting to protect her eldest child.

“I want him to have a strong foundation where he is and get acclimated with the fans and the city and what he’s got to do,” Allen said after Davis’ introductory news conference at the NovaCare Complex. “Because that’s a lot for a 22-year-old.”

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It had already been a whirlwind 24 hours for Davis. His mother, her fiance, and other family members joined him in Las Vegas for the NFL draft on Thursday after a long pre-draft process that began in earnest just after the Bulldogs won the national championship in January.

Davis had been earmarked for the first round during a senior season in which his dominance as a run-stuffing nose tackle earned him national defensive player of the year honors. But his spellbinding performance in the combine only increased the hype behind “Godzilla,” one of his nicknames at Georgia.

What ultimately sealed the deal for the Eagles, though, was their observations of Davis during their visits to Athens and then their pre-draft meetings with the soft-spoken giant that revealed he was anything but a man-eater off the field.

“Watching him down there, watching him interact, the personality come out, the teammate he was and how players were drawn to him and how authentic he was and the personality,” general manager Howie Roseman said Thursday after the Eagles traded up two spots to No. 13. “We brought him in here also on the visit, and we felt the same way in the comfort level with the player and with the person.”

Davis isn’t perfect, of course, something his mother openly admitted. Her motto to her son is to “keep your nose clean,” and even if there are mistakes made, to ultimately “do the right thing.” Davis, by all accounts, stayed out of trouble growing up in Charlotte, N.C.

Basketball was his primary activity, aside from playing video games, and football didn’t enter the picture until the summer before his sophomore year of high school. Davis was always above-average size, but when the growth spurts kicked in, his mother couldn’t keep up with his expanding appetite.

Allen, an elementary school teacher, said she would come home from working a second job as a tutor to find her refrigerator and cabinets near empty. Davis had just transferred to Mallard Creek High School, and when Allen went to register her son, the wife of football coach Mike Palmieri worked in the office.

A lightbulb went off, especially after Allen took her reluctant son to meet Palmieri.

“He was telling us … it’s Monday through Thursday. They have breakfast and lunch — Bingo!” she said. “I said, ‘He will be here. Tell me what day it starts. I will drop him off. I don’t care if he’s the waterboy or if he’s just bringing you equipment because it’s going to save me on my grocery bills.’”

It took a while for football to register. Basketball was his first love. He was also into DJ-ing – “DJ Oreo” was his stage name. And football was, at first, a struggle. He started on JV but by his junior year, the game slowed and he started gaining recognition from Division I colleges, and not just because of his combination of size and athleticism.

Davis said having a Mallard Creek alum like D.J. Humphries — now an offensive tackle with the Cardinals — recount his road to the NFL on return visits to the school made him believe that he, too, could take that path. There were other mentors and role models that helped him eventually secure scholarship offers and ultimately choose Georgia.

And it’s not as if he got to Athens and flourished immediately. It took discipline and sacrifice.

“As I went along in college, it really clicked,” Davis said on Friday. “I was like, ‘I can go really far in this.’ Took a lot of work, a lot of dedication, but if you put your mind to it, you can achieve it. I’m glad I had that opportunity to do that yesterday and last night. It’s one thing to get to the NFL, it’s another thing to stay there.”

Davis’ affability should help him assimilate into the NFL. While he could have griped about his part-time role on Georgia’s defense or the way he was employed, he displayed a selflessness that endeared him to teammates.

“I always say, ‘Two on me, somebody’s free,’” Davis said.

Davis and Allen clearly share a close bond. They prayed together on the field before games at Georgia. He said he was most happy the Eagles drafted him because his mother has been a fan of the team since the Donovan McNabb era.

Allen said she was at first smitten by the similarly-aged McNabb when he joined the Eagles. But she also liked the Chunky Soup commercials he did with his own mother, Wilma. Maybe there’s a chance for a local redux.

“I’m sure she’s super stoked. She’s not going to be overly excited. She’s going to keep it cool,” Davis said. “I’m sure she’s super proud and super excited for me. And to be doing it for her favorite team, it makes me want to go even harder.”

But go easy on Davis, his mother asked. She can be the tough cop when necessary.

“To this day, if I get on him about something he just [gives me] a little-boy face, a grin. He’s very respectful,” Allen said. “But he can get on my nerves every now and then. And we break up a lot. We’ve been breaking up like ever since, I don’t know when.”

But they always get back together.