Jaden
Davis.
Jaden
Davis.
Miami (FL)· 5'10"· 187 lb· 4.47s 40
"Arizona spent the Pat Tillman pick on a 5-9 nickel who tackled like a starter and covered like a backup, and two years of injuries later he never held a September roster spot."Pre-draft read
Davis is a nickel-first corner who spent five years in the slot and in off-man, and the trait that carried him is short-area recovery. He plays low out of his backpedal, mirrors the first two steps of a release and closes late on throws in front of him.
The second trait is run support: a willing striker inside who fits alleys and finished his Miami season with three tackles for loss, a sack and two forced fumbles from a nickel alignment. He is not a length or ball-production player and he loses ground vertically against bigger receivers, so the value sits in blitz timing, tackling reliability and a gunner profile. The signature is a corner who finishes plays rather than erases them.
A nickel-heavy defense that plays him exclusively over the slot in match-quarters and off-man, asks him to trigger downhill against the run, and uses him as a timed blitzer off the edge of the box.
Year 1: practice-squad or CB5 who earns a helmet as a core special-teamer and plays 100-150 nickel snaps in dime packages. Ceiling: a stable No. 3 corner who starts in sub packages and never leaves the field on third down.
A press-man outside system that puts him on the boundary against 6-2 X receivers - he has sub-30-inch arms and loses ground down the sideline, so he gets boxed out at the catch point every time the ball goes up.
His best football came when Miami kept him inside and let him play forward; any defense that asks him to travel with a No. 1 outside wastes the tackling and gets punished vertically.
Jaden Davis | Cornerback | Miami | 2023 Highlights | 2024 NFL Draft
Senior-season cutup: slot coverage reps, run fits and the tackling that led Miami's corners.
Jaden Davis vs Texas A&M
His ACC Defensive Back of the Week game - eight tackles, two TFL and the forced fumble that swung the win.
CB's Cane of the Week | Jaden Davis | Miami vs Texas A&M
Miami's weekly feature breaking down the same Texas A&M performance rep by rep.
Davis is a five-year, two-school defensive back whose identity was set early: a 5-9, 187-pound cover man from St. Thomas Aquinas who played as a true freshman at Oklahoma and never became the outside starter his recruiting profile promised. Four years in Norman produced snaps, not stardom; the transfer to Miami produced his best film.
The 2023 tape is the evaluation. He started twelve of thirteen games, led the Hurricanes' corners with 42 tackles, added 3.0 tackles for loss, a sack, four breakups and two forced fumbles, and won ACC Defensive Back of the Week for an eight-tackle, two-TFL game against Texas A&M. The signature is what the box score hides: rarely targeted deep, rarely beaten. The flags were the size, the ball production - one interception in five seasons - and the Oklahoma history, where he allowed touchdowns and a career-worst reception rate in 2021.
Boards had him as a priority free agent or a late day-three flier: a nickel body with tackling reliability and special-teams value, not a projected contributor. Arizona spent its final pick on him at 226, the slot that produced Pat Tillman in 1998, with the Tillman Foundation announcing the card.
- 01
Short-area recovery
mirrors the first two steps of a release and closes late on throws underneath, the trait behind fourteen career pass breakups.
- 02
Run support
a willing striker from the slot who fits alleys and finished 2023 with 3.0 tackles for loss and a sack from a nickel alignment.
- 03
Tackling reliability
143 career tackles and a Miami-leading 42 among corners as a senior, with sound angles and few misses in space.
- 04
Ball disruption on contact
two forced fumbles in 2023, including the strip that swung the Texas A&M win, showing he attacks the carrier's arm.
- 05
Testing profile
4.47 forty, 7.46 three-cone and a 35.5-inch vertical at his pro day, enough athletic base to survive inside.
- 01
Size
5-9 and 187 pounds with sub-30-inch arms, so bigger receivers box him out at the catch point and win the jump ball routinely.
- 02
Ball production
one interception across 60 college games, a five-year record of playing the man rather than the football in the air.
- 03
Coverage history
the Oklahoma tape includes a career-worst 2021 in which he allowed four touchdowns and nearly 20 yards per reception.
- 04
Vertical speed in phase
quick over five yards but he loses ground down the sideline, which caps him as an inside-only cover option.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.47sp50
- Vertical
- 35.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 119inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.46sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.52sp50
- Bench
- 16repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Oklahoma | 14 | 30 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2020 | Oklahoma | 10 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 2021 | Oklahoma | 13 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2022 | Oklahoma | 10 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2023 | Miami (FL) | 13 | 42 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Career | — | 60 | 143 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 2 |
Seasons 2020-2023 verified line by line on cfbstats player pages (Oklahoma id 522, Miami id 415): 2020 10 G / 11 tkl / 5 PBU, 2021 13 G / 25 tkl / 2 PBU, 2022 10 G / 35 tkl / 1.0 TFL / 2 PBU, 2023 13 G / 42 tkl / 3.0 TFL / 1.0 sack / 4 PBU / 2 FF. cfbstats has no 2019 page for him, so that line (14 G, 30 tkl, 1 INT, 1 PBU) comes from his 2024 draft-profile record and Oklahoma's 14-game CFP season. Sums check: 14+10+13+10+13 = 60 games, 30+11+25+35+42 = 143 tackles, 1+5+2+2+4 = 14 passes defensed, one career interception (2019 vs South Dakota State). Fumble recoveries and QB hurries are not carried; forced fumbles are 2023 only.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Late-round Miami-area corner who lives on practice squads and special teams while chasing a rotational role.
Undersized slot corner whose tackling and short-area recovery turned him into a full-time nickel starter.
Undrafted-caliber nickel body who bounced between camps without ever locking down a 53-man spot.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Arizona waived him at the 2024 cutdown and re-signed him to the practice squad the next day; he finished his rookie year without an active-roster appearance. A reserve/future deal in January 2025 was undone by a training-camp knee injury: injured reserve on July 27, released with a settlement on August 1. He returned to the practice squad on October 1, was let go at the end of the month, came back in mid-November and finally played through three standard elevations in December and early January - three games, 62 snaps, 38 on defense and 24 on teams, three tackles. Arizona signed another futures deal on January 5, 2026, placed him on injured reserve on July 31 and waived him with an injury settlement on August 5.
In hindsight the pick did what a 226th selection is supposed to do: it cost nothing and bought two and a half years of camp and practice-squad depth. The evaluation held on both sides - the tackling and slot toughness kept him employed, the size and missing ball production kept him from beating out a rostered nickel. Injuries did the rest, taking most of two camps at the exact point in a fringe career when availability is the only currency. At 25 and healthy he is a plausible practice-squad add somewhere, but the Cardinals chapter closed without him ever holding a September roster spot.
Data note: Seasons 2020-2023 verified line by line on cfbstats player pages (Oklahoma id 522, Miami id 415): 2020 10 G / 11 tkl / 5 PBU, 2021 13 G / 25 tkl / 2 PBU, 2022 10 G / 35 tkl / 1.0 TFL / 2 PBU, 2023 13 G / 42 tkl / 3.0 TFL / 1.0 sack / 4 PBU / 2 FF. cfbstats has no 2019 page for him, so that line (14 G, 30 tkl, 1 INT, 1 PBU) comes from his 2024 draft-profile record and Oklahoma's 14-game CFP season. Sums check: 14+10+13+10+13 = 60 games, 30+11+25+35+42 = 143 tackles, 1+5+2+2+4 = 14 passes defensed, one career interception (2019 vs South Dakota State). Fumble recoveries and QB hurries are not carried; forced fumbles are 2023 only.