Arizona has an abundance of talent in the 2025 NFL Draft, and with his scouting report, cornerback Tacario Davis could be one of the Wildcats’ first players off the board. What does Davis bring to the table, and what makes him such a unique talent?
Tacario Davis’ Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’4″
- Weight: 195 pounds
- Position: Cornerback
- School: Arizona
- Current Year: Junior
We may look back at the Wildcats’ 2024 college football roster and recognize an exorbitant amount of NFL talent. Davis will assuredly be one of the picks who changes the program’s perception on the defensive side of the ball.
Davis was only a three-star recruit from Long Beach, California, in the 2022 cycle, but he’s quickly grown to become one of the shining recruitment gems of Jedd Fisch’s tenure at Arizona.
In 2022, Davis saw limited action as a true freshman. But in 2023, he emerged as a dominant force on the boundary, accumulating 25 tackles, a half tackle for loss, an interception, and 15 pass deflections — one of the leading figures in all of the Power Five.
In the 2024 offseason, Fisch left to become the Washington Huskies head coach, and Davis, at first, entered the transfer portal. But Davis eventually withdrew from the portal, and he’ll continue his climb toward the 2025 NFL Draft in Tucson.
Davis’ Scouting Report
Strengths
- Outrageously tall and long-cover man with overwhelming length and disruptive reach.
- Light-footed mover who naturally glides up the field and covers ground in side-saddle.
- Explosive vertical athlete who can quickly reach high speeds out of initial transitions.
- Can use his explosiveness to match vertical attacks and snuff out early separation.
- Long-striding frame grants Davis the range to cover vertical threats in the deep third.
- Has the snappy calibration and foot speed to match WRs, then quickly enter phase.
- Has the requisite hip fluidity to undergo 90-degree transitions and carry upfield.
- Possesses the bend and curvilinear acceleration to clamp down on out and corner routes.
- Proactive communicator in zone coverage who understands when to pass off and carry.
- Has sharp field vision and route recognition, and instinctively flows to the ball in zone.
- Has great throttle control and blind spot awareness, and can recognize backside wheels.
- Patient man-coverage defender with great hip leverage IQ and reaction to stimulus.
- Has shown to use disciplined technique with feet first in press, loading punches.
- Forcefully uses length and physicality to jam receivers and squeeze them at the boundary.
- Proactively crowds and contests WRs at the catch point with his overwhelming length.
Weaknesses
- Long speed, while exceptional, falls below the elite mark.
- Upright running style sometimes saps at maximum pace on the vertical plane.
- Doesn’t quite have the high-end fluidity to stack sharp hip transitions consistently.
- Taller frame naturally inhibits his sink when breaking back toward the ball on hitches.
- Is noticeably slower on 180-degree transitions and needs to take gather steps.
- Taller frame and occasional transitional hitches may impact man translatability.
- At times, can be baited into carrying vertically past post routes by WR head fakes.
- At times, needs to be more proactive carrying wide receivers when help safeties are encumbered.
- Despite near-elite ball skills, occasionally has room to track the ball more precisely.
- In spite of length, lacking strength and tall pad level can impact block deconstruction.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Entering the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, Davis grades out as a top-50 prospect, who could potentially contend for late first-round capital. Particularly for zone-heavy defensive schemes, he’ll be coveted as an early-round prospect, but he has appeal beyond that.
At 6’4″, 195 pounds, Davis is an extremely rare prototype at the CB position. Not only does he have overwhelming size and length, but he moves extremely well at that size, with the explosiveness, speed, smooth flexibility, and short-area quickness to match at the line.
A natural byproduct of Davis’ height is that he doesn’t have elite hip fluidity or sink. But he does a great job counteracting that flaw with sharp processing, efficient technique, range in recovery, terse physicality, and near-elite ball skills at the catch point.
In man coverage, Davis has enough short-area quickness and fluidity to match, and he can proactively use his length to jam and redirect receivers while using his speed to recover. In zone, he’s a formidable force with his throttle freedom, spatial awareness, processing ability, and swarming ball skills.
Davis might never be an elite option against smaller slot receivers, and his proficiency is greater in press-man and zone coverage than it is in off-man, where he has to rely more on malleability to survive. But regardless, Davis has an extremely enticing skill set.
Particularly in zone-heavy schemes with some emphasis on press-man, Davis has impact starter upside, as a glue piece with a dynamic playmaking element and enough of a floor to survive in run support. Davis is the quintessential Cover 3 albatross — a suffocating force on the boundary.