Davante Davis Offers Size & Physicality Can He Help The Redskins In The Secondary?

Davante Davis, CB
School: Texas | Conference: BIG 12
College Experience: Senior | Age: 22?
Height / Weight: 6-2 / 202 lbs
Projected Draft Status: 5th or 6th Round
NFL Comparison: James Bradberry

College Statistics

Player Overview

Davante Davis was a 4-star recruit from Miami, Florida who chose Texas over his hometown Hurricanes, Florida State, Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, and a lot of other top programs because of the relationship he built up with former head coach Charlie Strong. Davis got playing time early in his career and meshed with defensive backs coach Chris Vaughn. Vaughn left Texas after he was accused of violating several NCAA rules include those relating creating fraudulent SAT and ACT scores to satisfy academic standards for recruits while he was a coach at Ole Miss. After Vaughn left a new defensive backs coach took over and didn’t give Davis much playing time in his sophomore season. Texas cleaned house with their coaching staff the following season and the same thing happened. Davis a top recruit wasn’t being used as he anticipated and his confidence suffered. Unfortunately he did not get back on track until this past season. This past season was his first as a starter and he finally flashed the skills that made him a top recruit in the first place. Texas defensive coordinator Todd Orlando praised Davis for his growth and polish in his game. Davis may have been a late bloomer in college due to unfortunate circumstances but he has plenty of upside left to keep improving in the right system and situation.

Strengths

• Excellent size, good athleticism and explosion for position.
• Tough, physical player who has no problem coming in and tackling in run support. Fights through blocks and wraps up well.
• Has decent fluidity and smoothness with his backpedal and bail technique. Looks a lot better as a zone defender than a man coverage guy. Keeping plays in front of him he can use his recognition of routes to close in coverage quickly. Uses his length and physicality to knock receivers off their routes and disrupt passes.
• Shows decent ball skills. Finished his college career on a high note and has the potential to play either corner or safety.

Weaknesses

• Doesn’t have the acceleration to stick with speedy receivers downfield. He’s a long strider but not very quick and when guys go past him he can panic and interfere.
• Takes the cheese way too much in man coverage and needs to play the receiver more and remained disciplines and not give away too much.
• Agility is limited for the position and a position switch may be in order.
• Lost confidence and play declined in college. What is his mental toughness now?

Let’s see his work:

More Davante Davis videos

How He Would Fit On The Redskins

While every position in football requires confidence cornerback arguably is at the top of the list of positions where this is most important. Corners have to have the ability to take things one play at a time and be able to quickly put bad plays behind them and move forward on the field. Due to lots of instability with his coaching staff at Texas and a few bad experiences on the field he went through a rut in college. What is great about Davis, and what should inspire a team to take a chance on him is that he overcame this portion of his career and closed out strong. He needs a lot of work technique wise but I think he has some promise as a late round boundary corner playing zone. Assuming the Redskins will still be a zone heavy team I think there is definitely a place for Davis to compete with Adonis Alexander at the back of the roster. Furthermore Davis may bring greater value because of his tackling ability and physical style of play which could be used on special teams. I think the team’s safety depth is decent but if they ever felt the need to convert him they could try that out too. Davis needs to get on the field in the pros one way or another to keep building on the momentum he’s gained. If he can learn to play disciplined while taking his chances at the right time along with a few other nuances he could be a nice value for a late round pick.