Jalen Davis Is The All-American CB No One Is Talking About That Can Help Redskins At Nickel

Jalen Davis, CB
School: Utah State | Conference: Mountain West
College Experience: Senior | Age: 22?
Height / Weight: 5-10 / 185 lbs
Projected Draft Status: 5th Round
NFL Comparison: Marcus Sherels

College Statistics

Player Overview

Jalen Davis is from La Mesa, California and only received offers to play football from 3 schools after being rated a 2-star prospect. UC Davis, Northern Arizona, and Utah State were the schools and Davis made the trip northeast to Utah State because of the level of competition. Davis has had a solid college career and got second-team All-American honors this past year after his most productive season yet. Davis is a smaller sized corner but he is fast, competitive, and can do a lot of good things. Davis can be sticky in man coverage and hawkish in zone coverage. He excels at reading the quarterbacks eyes, jumping routes, and making plays on the ball. Utah State used him as a slot CB and he primarily covered slot receivers but also defended tight ends. He is a willing and effective tackler though he doesn't generate much power because of his size. He is quick though and was used on blitzes a good amount. The knock on Davis at the next level will be his size and play strength. He didn't receive a combine invite and was one of the bigger snubs this year in my opinion so we don't have the most recent measurables. Utah State’s pro day is March 28th. If Davis tests well there he could be on the rise from his current draft projection.

Strengths

• Great speed and athleticism for the position. I’ll be interested in his vertical measurement from his pro day it looks like he can get up there.
• Comes like a thief in the night in coverage. He has excellent closing speed and burst to quickly close the gap and make a stop. Most impressive are his anticipation and instincts. He gets awesome jumps on routes.
• Competes with the receiver and contests the catch often playing bigger than his size. He can make better adjustments than the receiver at times and come away with the ball.
• Moves fluidly and naturally on the field has little issue in changes in direction or turning and bailing when needed. Great at finding the ball in the air.

Weaknesses

• Lacks ideal height and length for the position will stay as a slot defender in the NFL but could run into trouble with bigger slot opponents.
• Could stand to increase his play strength so he has a bit more pop in his tackles. Used on blitzes but has no plan or strategy for taking on defenders and can get run out of the play.
• Would like to see him play more physically at the LOS and use overall better technique when checking receivers at the line and through the route.

Let’s see his work:

More Jalen Davis videos

How He Would Fit On The Redskins

Davis is yet another option for the Redskins on day 3 of the draft to add depth to their now thin CB core. Davis would come in and immediately compete with Josh Holsey to be the teams starting slot corner. I think Davis may have a chance to win that battle. I’ll be interested to see his results from his pro day later this month to confirm the speed and athleticism he put up on tape. What I saw of Davis is limited but I couldn't see much bad aside from his size and play strength. If he were 6-0 / 200 he would be going much higher in this draft. He has great instincts and anticipation. His ball skills allow for some electric plays on defense as well. I’d expect him to start out on special teams and wouldn't be surprised if he got a few cracks at being a returner due to his speed and quickness and experience doing that his first few years at Utah State. My main concern for him are his two big weaknesses which could leave him coming up short against TEs and bigger slot WRs. Davis has the skill set to become a starting nickel CB in the NFL.