Bengals' reach on Tacario Davis in NFL Draft felt all too familiar

The Cincinnati Bengals selected Washington Huskies cornerback Tacario Davis with the 72nd overall pick in the third round of this year’s draft. 

With this pick, they went back to their tried-and-true traits-over-production model while also looking for a potential succession plan. The towering 6'4" Davis has legit 4.4 speed, and seems like a solid fit in Al Golden's defensive scheme.

However, the film and pre-draft rankings suggest the Bengals could have acquired Davis a full round later. 

Bengals fall in love with traits over tape again

Many spreadsheet warriors will love this pick, citing one data point above all others. However, the game film should rule the day, which we will leave up to interpretation. 

The overwhelming data point that most seem to be seizing on is length. Sure, Davis is a cornerback who is almost 6'4". His height, wingspan, and arm length ranked in the 98th, 97th, and 95th percentiles, respectively.

Those numbers are incredible when considering that he compares favorably to former University of Cincinnati first-round pick Ahmad Gardner.

And it is those measurements that most seem to have locked in on when discussing this prospect.

However, when watching him play, you quickly realize why it is rare for a player of that size to be able to run with and cover NFL receivers.

Davis' lack of explosiveness and change of direction showed up in some of his Combine results, where he recorded times closer to the bottom of the group in the 10-yard split, vertical jump, and broad jump. 

If football were a game played in a proverbial phone booth (kids, ask your parents what a phone booth is) or always inside the red zone, then sure, taking a tall player with long arms makes a ton of sense. 

Nevertheless, other aspects of playing football must be at the forefront of consideration when selecting a player with a top-100 pick, beyond length.

And the production grades don't seem to match up with the round Davis was selected. 

Pro Football Focus gave Davis a grade of 67.2 for the 2025 season. Of Davis, PFF writes:

"Tacario Davis is a cornerback for the Washington Huskies who earned a 67.2 overall PFF defensive grade in the 2025 season, 484th among 897 qualified cornerbacks. His PFF coverage grade of 65.0 ranked 551st among 897 qualified cornerbacks. His run-defense grade of 81.8 ranked 84th at the position."

If this were basketball, teams could play him off the floor by going smaller. If Davis were to cover a wide receiver like Ravens wideout Zay Flowers in between the 20-yard lines, that would not be ideal unless he can use his longer reach to give much quicker wideouts issues off the line of scrimmage.

While that could be the plan, it was not a consistent part of his repertoire at Washington. 

Furthermore, Davis is not the type of cornerback who's going to shed many blocks to help with rush defense. For a unit that was the worst tackling defense by far, this could be less than ideal.

Major Reach reporting for duty, captain?

Take the various draft outlet rankings for Davis with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, they indicate how teams and scouts saw the position heading into the draft.

Davis ranked 123rd (PFF), 147th (nfl.com), 121st (Tankathon), and 123rd (Mock Draft Database) across several major draft outlets.

When looking at where most draft outlets had Davis ranked, along with the players who went off the board after him, and those who remain available, there is an excellent chance that he would've still been available in the fourth round for the Bengals with the 110th overall pick.

If you love the Bengals picking Davis with the 72nd overall pick, imagine how good you would feel if they selected him at 110.

If you take the NFL.com rankings for the best players available, six cornerbacks rank higher than Davis.

One of the most notable of which is Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy, whose knee injury is significant enough to drop him all the way down to day three after several “experts” picked him to go to the Bengals with the 10th overall pick prior to them making the trade for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence.

Also still available to teams is Miami Hurricane slot corner Keionte Scott, whom some thought Cincinnati would take with their 41st pick. 

McCoy and Scott came in at 19th and 53rd in NFL.com’s rankings, respectively. 

For Tankathon, seven cornerbacks are still available, ranked higher than Davis. Those names include McCoy, Scott, Keith Abney II, Malik Muhammad, Chandler Rivers, Devin Moore, and Will Lee III.

Did Bengals draft for the future, again?

Finally, there is the fit with the Bengals defense. As a third-rounder, we shouldn't expect Davis to compete immediately for the starting role at cornerback. 

The best part of Cincinnati's defense last year was the play from their starting cornerbacks, DJ Turner and Dax Hill. 

Now, to draft a potential replacement around the slot, who can hopefully play in the slot, and perhaps even a little bit of safety, rather than targeting that particular player, such as Keionte Scott, based on height and long arms, seems to miss the ideal target. 

Nevertheless, the Bengals seem to be playing their succession game again if they are unable to re-sign Dax Hill next year. And while that might be a sound plan in theory, it may not help Cincinnati in 2026.

Furthermore, the team is once again going with the “hope” plan that Davis can become a player on the same level as, or as close as possible to, Dax Hill.

Let's hope that the Bengals made the right decision and landed a steal in the third round, who can use his height and wingspan to immediately contribute to a defense that needed a lot of help. 

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