LISTEN | Draft Pick Profile - Ashtyn Davis (5/11)

the Giants when they traded Leonard Williams across town in October. Yeah, good value there from Joe Douglas acquiring a third round pick in and then a fifth round pick in one. Leonard Williams got the franchise tag. He still has not received a long term extension with the Giants. If he did prior to the start of the league year, that fifth round pick in one would actually have became a

fourth have become a fourth round pick. But instead the Jets do pick up a pair of draft picks, and they used this one in the third round on Ashton Davis, a versatile player. I feel like that is a broken record for us. Every player that Joe Douglas has taken or brought in free agency, you've seen a lot of position flexibility, and I just thought this was an interesting spot in the draft order Greens because the Jets had two picks over nine selections on Friday night because Denzel

Mims the wide receiver at the Baylor. Of course, they took with the fifty ninth overall selection in the second round, and they come back with the Giants selection here early in the third and they grabbed the Kale safety. The other thing I thought was interesting was after the Jets go tackle and receiver in rounds one and two, and then I thought it was kind of a guessing game.

Anybody's guests where the Jets could go next. And I don't think a lot of pundents out there, and I don't think a lot of fans thought that the Jet would go with the safety. But it adds good depth. And we'll talk about where Davis fits and on this roster in a bit, but before we actually dive in to Ashton Davis the player, let's hear from the Jets personnel. Let's hear from Joe Douglas, Rex Hogan, chat Alexander and Phil Savage on why they liked Ashton Davis. You Ashton

bring speed, ball skills, versatility. Can see him line up over slot receiver and cover them and man coverage. You can see him line up as a high safety and range over to the sideline to make a play on the ball. You can see him attack the alleys in the in the run game, you can see him blitz what we have with Jamal, with Marcus, and you know, adding n Ashton, letting him compete, you know, the hope is that he can he can provide that kind of

versatility and playmaking to our back end. Not only did he walk on in football, he walked on in track at Cal and ended up you know, doing significantly well for their track team at Cal, and then continue to improve as a football player and established himself as one of the premier defensive players, not only for Cal, but in the Pac twelve. His versatility really stands out. That guys played free safety, strong safety, He's played corner, He's

played nickel and those nickel and dime packages. Ashton's another guy who also provides us that versatility. And he didn't get to run at the combine, but I really think he would have tested extremely well without being able to because of the surgery he underwent. But this is an explosive athlete, another height, weight and speed guy who's gonna be able to help us on defense and special teams. He's really got good football intelligence. He cleans up a

lot as a safety. You know, he's a good tackler. I think he is physical and he made some impressive players on tape universes running pass. He's just he's really instinctive, really high football like you for the game. You know, he can he can cover receiver, he can cover a slot. He's got man in his own ability and he can match and maryn. We think he's gonna he's gonna be

a really good player as well for us. Just gives us, you know, that much more versatility on the back end market Singe all two really good players at that at the safety position, and then incomes Ashton Davison and we feel like he's a guy that's gonna be able to help us on fourth down as well. He's gonna be

a really good special teams player in the NFL. So just really excited to get him, to get him in the fold in that in that dB room and with those safeties, and you know, those are three really talented guys, you know, coming from where he came from. Uh, he's really an impressive, you know guy that talked to. He's an impressive young man, and uh, I don't think this moment is gonna be too big for him, just because of what he was able to overcome to get to

get to this point. You know, I think Ashton is is one of those kinds of players that he's earned everything he's ever gotten. And you know, in this situation, of course, a lot has been made about him being a former walk onto the cow football team. Look, this guy is extremely talented. I mean, he's a legit track man, can absolutely run. But the thing that makes him different than a lot of guys who trans transition from track to football is that he's actually very instinctive as a player.

He's extremely versatile. Uh. There are a lot of safeties that have straight line speed, but they can't do a lot of other things in terms of coverage, playing in the box, breaking down in space, that sort of thing, and Ashton Davis can do all of those things. He's a cerebral player. As I said, He's been an achiever type person his entire life. And uh, we were we were excited to get him. We we just think that he's going to add another piece to the puzzle defensively

and because of that versatility I mentioned. You know, he can play safe, he can play down in the box. He might even take some reps outside as a corner. He's certainly fast enough to do it. And you know, I think if he had not had the injury or the surgery that happened back in December, and he would have been able to participate paid fully in the Senior Bowl or the Combine, I think he clearly would have been,

you know, a higher pick. So I think this this whole scenario where you know, he really was not able to work out due to the surgery and then this pandemic that hurt him some in terms of the draft stock. But for us, we went by what we saw on the film, on the tapes and in the fall, and our scouts really liked him during the season. Great insight as always from those guys and e A. The first thing about Ashton Davis that we kind of here the

personnel staff talk about is his backstory. And this is a player that grew up and had a massive growth spur. I mean he was he grew about eight inches and added about seventy five pounds in his final three years at Santa Cruz High School. In California. He doesn't receive any football offers. He walks onto the Cow track team as a back doorway of walking onto the Cow football team, and of course he ends up being a third round pick of the NFL Draft. Where do you want to

start with this guy? I think he should be selling movie rights to his story. Green See started high school as a bike but four sophomore who weighed ninety pounds in Santa Cruz High School. Greens seventeen players his junior season, and one of their offense ONLIVEE and wait a hundred and fifty five pounds. Great article by Bruce Feldman in The Athletic if you want to learn about this backstory.

But that team finished one and nine overall. He was a zero star recruit, basically recruited himself to California and then, uh, you know, gradually progressed. He was a special team stalwart early on in his career that he became a defensive regular. He's just continuing to progress. So there's a lot of reason to think right now that Ashton Davis is just gonna get better and better. He is a fantastic athlete. Greens.

One thing that stands out about Davis. When you hear from the differen guys that have covered Davis and the Jets personnel staff that talked about him, it seems he's very instinctive for a player that's somewhat new to the

position and somewhat new to football. To your point, he plays cornerback his first year on the football team in ten after red shirting, and he wins the Special Team's m VP Award back to back years, moves to free safety, and then this past year he's second team All Packed twelve and he's a finalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, which goes to the nation's top former walk on. And I think, really,

when you look at Davis's story, it's fascinating. And when you hear about the different personnel guys talk about adding to the fabric of what they want the New York Jets to be. This is a guy that has worked his way to where he is now. Not only has he over overcome a lot on the football field, but his father had an addiction problem where he went to

rehab and he's been clean now. And actually Ashton Davis, his sister, and his father are all share the same tattoo on their rist of the day that Ashton's father, Sean has been clean and so really a fascinating story and interesting prospect with a fascinating back story about sixth grade Ashton Davis writes, one day, I hope to be famous. My dream is to play in the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball all at once until I'm too old to play. Sports is my hobby and that is all

I do. One day, I hope to wish upon a star and try to tackle any chance I have at making my dream come true. Well, he's probably not gonna play Major League Baseball or in the n b A, but he is certainly going to play in the National Football League. At Cal Green's, he played in forty eight

out of a possible fifty games. He made thirty three starts, including nine consecutive, and then you look what he did in terms of production, hundred and seventy one tackles, seven interceptions, nineteen pass defenses, three force fumbles, and three fumble recoveries. So he filed the football and athletic guy. We'll talk about his track background here in a moment, but the other thing he did was contribute on special teams more

than seventeen hundred all purpose yards. Very fast, guy contributed as a kick returner. You talked about what he did early on from a gunner position. This is guy who you mentioned the fabric, a great desire to play this game, a great flexibility, a great passion, and I think he's gonna fit in and we're gonna talk about this in a little bit. I think he's a perfect fit for

what the Jets are going to do defensively. I think something else I like about Davis is he used track as a way to get on the football all radar, but he was still a four year member of the Golden Bears track team. He was a four time All American. He won a pack twelveth championship. He qualified for the

n C Double A Championships in eighteen. He finished fourteen and the hundred ten meter hurdles, and he got a track scholarship, but he turned it down here because it meant that he would have to give up his football dreams. And he was actually put on scholarship for the Golden Bears football team in twenty seventeen. I know we feel like we're beating a dead horse saying it, but he's really worked up to where he was the sixty overall selection real quick, just on his pre draft process. He

gets hurt at the end of the year. He undergo surgery. And this is a guy where Phil Savage said this he was hurt by an evaluation standpoint, because he wasn't able to participate in any of the All Star games. In the combine, he didn't have a medical recheck the pro the teams couldn't get him in for a top thirty. Is it? So this is another guy where the Jets might have gotten great value At the end of the day.

We might be looking at this in a couple of years and say, wow, how did Ashton Davis fall to the overall selection? And this is because of an unusual process. He certainly would have ran while we know that and the kid is trained in it, you know, so you're thinking that he did not have the ability in Indianapolis to run the forty yard dash where you know he would have thrived in that area. And then at the senior bolt too, we mentioned Dunzel Mims overall selection by

the Jets. Well, he had a dominant week Donomobile Alabama and helped his draft status in terms of proteins. Looking at him. Well, Ashton Davis didn't have the ability to go down there and perform physically on the field in front of all those scalps. So yeah, there definitely is reason to think that this is strong value here. And you hear a lot of punt It's talk about Ashton Davis, what he brings from an a tangible standpoint, and then

also how freakish is athletically. I think it's fair to say any person who walks on at cal to be a track and field star. In Nanny Binghams a football star as well, they have some freak athletic tenant season. And also it talks about their drive and what's inside and those are things he certainly can't measure. All right, let's hear from Olivy land Is, who spoke to Ashton Davis after he was selected. It's safe to say that you've had quite the journey to get to this point.

What were some of your initial reactions when you heard your name called off the board. I didn't know what to think that I was just I was so happy, you know. Um, I was happy to see my mom's look at my mom's face and my dad's face. Everyone was just so happy for me and that was amazing to see and um, you know, I can still hear them dreaming in the background here, So that really brought me a lot of joy and just you know, from my own personal accomplishments. Um, it felt really good thinking

back to your own journey. Like I mentioned, you started out as a track star. Were tracks star still in college balancing both of that and football? How much work did you have to put in on the football side to get to this point today. I had to put on a lot of work. So I would go to spring wal practices and then track right after. I basically had to do both like I was a walk on, because I was, and uh, but I put in I

put in a fair amount of work. When I got switched to safety, I uh, we're going to film at five thirty am. We called it the breakfast Club, and we were just trying to learn the scheme and trying to get it down and all that, you know, began to come to fruition by the time I got moved to safety and started my first game. For a lot of people who were not college athletes, I'm not sure that they understand how crazy of a schedule that is.

But you being first a track star. You know a lot of accomplishments here they packed twelve winner in the hunter and ten hurdles. And how much did your track your your track resume help you in football because you had to do both. Yeah, um, we'll track help me out. Fortunately, my first year in track, I did really well and that kind of got the ear of football coaches a little bit. And um, you know, affording me that opportunity. Um,

and just the whole mindset training for tracks a lot different. Um, A lot of times you're out there running by yourself. You gotta hit your own times. You gotta be pretty disciplined or else you're gonna you know, you're not gonna get the results you want. Come come to meat day so that that mindset is carried over with me. And UM, yeah it was, there was. It was a lot on my plate. But I was blessed to have those problems. Those are good problems to have. You mentioned a little

bit earlier. So let's circle back. You said you first started out in the cornerback position and then you transitioned to safety. How difficult was that transition at first? Um? I felt a lot more comfortable with safety. So, UM, back in high school, we didn't have like a ton of schemes. So it was it was when I switched to safety, it just felt natural. Um, learning all that stuff was it was. It came really quickly to me, and it all kind of just made sense. And so

if it was really natural transition. Now that you have experience in both the cornerback position and safety, how versatile would you consider yourself in both positions? And how much do do you do you think you can contribute to both positions. I think I can contribute, you know, anywhere they put me. Um, I'm comfortable on the outside, inside, um, whatever the case. Maybe you know during one on ones would take reps with the corners as well. So I just, yeah,

I feel comfortable wherever they want to put me. Going off that a little bit, defensive coordinator Greg Williams, he's been known around the league for making all of his defensive players learned at the very least two different positions. Sounds like you're already off to a head start. So when you think about that and how he handles his players, what would you tell him that you can bring to the table. You already kind of mentioned a little bit,

But when you think about Greg Williams specifically. UM, well, if he's a guy that likes people that know multiple positions, I think that, uh that I'm a good fit for that. Um, you know. I that was something that I kind of took the next step on after my first year of playing safety. I wanted to know every position and not just my responsibility, but that way they could put me,

um if someone went down. And um we did that actually this year a couple of times, and I knew the scheme well enough where they could just plug me in and play me aston if you were to be able to play some of the safety positions. Pro bowler Jamal Adams is also back there at safety, and then Marcus May. How much do you think you can learn from players of that caliber? I'm excited, Um, mom is a guy watched on tape, and Marcus May he's also

really talented. So I look forward to learn from those guys. Um. That's one thing I'm excited about for sure. UM is you know, getting behind to two guys that know what they're doing back there and uh soaking up all that knowledge real quickly before I let you go. You also contributed to special teams back at cal. What was some of your roles and how do you think you can continue that in the NFL? Yeah, so on kickoff, I was a gunner. Um, I was a gun around pun

as well. I played a variety of position on punt return and kickoff return. I also returned punts and kick kickoffs. And yeah, I kind of tried to do as much as I could on that. And uh, such teams is something that I enjoy doing and think that I can I can help us with at the next level. And let's now take a look at where Davis fits in on this Jets defense. We mentioned that he was a versatile peace. Greg Williams loves versatility and at the safety position.

Of course, Jamal Adams and Marcus May the starters, but after those two guys a bit of a question mark before Ashton Davis came into the fold here, Yeah, and the Jets may have the best safety and the entire National Football leave Jamal Adams two time team I'm VP, he was first team All Pro last year, two time Pro Bowler. He's such a destructive force and instinct the

ball player. Um. But the only player in the defensive backfield who played sixteen games last year was Marcus May, and he's range e. Uh, he helps these guys get set up. He is, uh, the central command piece back there. When the Jets had so many issues at the cornerback position, all those young cornerbacks who came in and played, they point to Marcus May and say, hey, he's the guy who's kind of determined our shock clock, when we should be disguising, when when we should be coming off markets.

May doesn't get enough credit for what he brings to the table on this team. But with that being said, like you mentioned Greens, who was gonna be that third piece behind those guys. In the National Football League, a lot of people say that your your base defense is a sub package, whether you're playing five defensive backs the Nickel scheme or sometimes even dying depending on what offenses are doing. Sometimes you're throwing out there six defensive backs

on the field. What you like about Ashton Davis is when he started getting on the field defensively for the Kel Golden Bears, it was at cornerback. So you know he has free safety skills evidenced by his seven interceptions, and we've talked about his speed, but other people talk about when you watch him on the film, is He's another guy who brings a physical element to the game. He does not act away from contact, and that should

be no surprise given his background. So now what you have is you have Jamal Adams, you have Marcus May. Those are two versatile pieces. But you add this guy to the equation, you have the potential to use him as a big, big nickel. And what you like about the Jets defensive backs let's include Brian pull into the mix here, is that you can walk these guys down in the box, guys like Ashton Davis, Jamal Adams, Brian Poole, and you're not giving up anything with your run defense.

And those guys can get over. A guy like Ashton Davis can get over a tight end and say, Okay,

I got you. Yeah. I think that something you mentioned in terms of Marcus May is something that chat Alexander mentioned that Ashton Davis, Marcus May, and Ashton Davis both may not have maybe eye popping stats at the end of the day, but something that they both do very well, according to different people, is that they erase a lot of things, a lot of problems that your secondary might have, and they cover up a lot for the corners throughout a play and something that I can only imagine Ashton

Davis fully healthy, with Marcus May and Jamal Adams, what kind of pre snap manipulation Greg Williams will want to deploy. I think that at the end of the day, maybe safety wasn't the position a lot of Jets fans were thinking about in the third round because of guys like Jamal Adams and Marcus May. But this is a guy that can one step on the field in sub packages to your point, and the other part of this is he might become a key cog and brand Lawyer's scheme,

whether that's returning, whether that's coverage. But this is who chat Alexander described as a four down player for the Jets. I think we had caught up too much in the positions because this guy, to me is a defensive back and you can use them in multiple ways. And the Jets, Uh, They're gonna be hell to play, especially on third down next year because what Greg Williams can do. Because you're getting c J. Mosley back. But c J. Mosley is

not leaving the field. Okay, we know that when c J. Mosley is healthy fifty sevens out there, he ain't leaving, but you can walk these guys down. Jamal Adams, in effect, he can play linebacker and so can Pool. They can line up as linebackers. Ashton Davis Ken as well. I'm not saying in base I'm saying in certain situations, and these guys have the versatility to move around, so you're gonna see that as well. And the Jets took advantage of Jamal Adams last year so much with his very

unique pass rushing problems. But Greg Williams is going to attack the quarterback with defensive backs at times. You're adding versatile pieces of the defensive backfield, Guys who can cover, guys who can play the ron, and guys can come up field and be affected with their pass rush. Very well said. That was another edition of the Official Jets podcast Draft Pick Profile series presented by Verizon. Next up, E A and I going down to Gainesville with Florida defensive lineman Jabari Zaniga