The Arizona Cardinals’ final selection of the 2024 NFL draft was taken with the 226th overall pick. They selected cornerback Jaden Davis, who spent four seasons at Oklahoma and one at Miami.
He was selected with the same number pick as Pat Tillman was drafted by the Cardinals in 1998, which is kind of cool. They were able to honor Tillman with two Tillman Scholars announcing the pick.
Now, as for the pick, Davis was a puzzling pick.
He is undersized at 5-foot-9. He has good enough speed (4.44-second 40) and a very good 10-yard split (1.49 seconds), but some of his other athletic tests were below average (7.46 three-cone).
He was Dan Brugler’s No. 60 cornerback. He was an expected rookie free agent.
His strength is versatility. He played outside, inside and even a full game at safety last season.
He had only one career interception, in his freshman year, and he had only 14 ass breakups in five seasons.
It feels like this was the sort of pick they made because they didn’t want to trade away the Tillman pick and they had finished off their board. Davis would have been a priority free agent the Cardinals would have targeted.
He will have a rough time making the roster but might have some upside on special teams later on.
This pick doesn’t deserve much more than a C.
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