Isaiah Davis was not on a list of the nation’s top 247 running backs in the 2020 college football recruiting class.
He was nowhere among the top 65 ranked recruits in the state of Missouri that year.
But Davis’ name will still be next in line to pick No. 173 in the 2024 NFL Draft after the Jets chose the former South Dakota State star — and not any of his peers who have already earned more recruiting stars from 247Sports – in the fifth round.
“It’s a dream come true to be here. It was always my goal to play in the NFL,” said Davis, whose only other college scholarship offer was to play linebacker at Missouri Southern State. “I never (had) doubted myself. Part of this whole journey, I feel like the reason I got this far is because I always had (skeptics), which made me even hungrier.
The Jets drafted two running backs — fourth-rounder Braelon Allen is the other — a year after using a fifth-round pick on Israel Abanikanda.
The pecking order behind starter Breece Hall – who Davis met in the locker room on Saturday before the final day of rookie minicamp – is wide open.
Davis led FCS players with 1,578 rushing yards last season.
He has scored 51 touchdowns in 46 career games. He has become a workhorse with 485 carries over the past two seasons, but brushed aside a question about fresh legs.
“After these last two months of training,” Davis said, “my body feels the best it’s ever felt.”
Head coach Robert Saleh highlighted Davis as one of the rare recruits whose physicality could become a “contagious trait that permeates the entire building.”
“That’s the standard you have to live and play by,” Davis said. “I’ve always played the game with physicality. Coming back, special teams, whatever it is, asserting dominance and being physical.
First-round OT pick Olu Fashanu (quad strain) was limited to a few movement drills with a trainer at the start of practice. Third-round pick WR Malachi Corley ran the ladder and ran under a few deep throws from a staff member.
Seventh-round safety Jaylen Key — the final pick of the draft — hugged people around the Jets’ facility and at his home in Florida, calling him “Mr. Irrelevant.”
“It’s something you get used to quickly,” Key said. “I like this.”
The odds are stacked against the 47 players who attended the minicamp on a trial basis and must exploit limited opportunities.
Shane Hooks, a 6-5 receiver from Auburn, did just that by making two deep catches against tight coverage.
The first was a full-extension dive, after which he appeared looking for more yards, and the second reached over the top of a defensive back and finished the play in the end zone.
Three veteran free agents with three or more years of NFL experience tried out for minicamp: RB Qadree Ollison, CB Breon Borders and S Obi Melifonwu.
Melifonwu, 30, is a former Raiders second-round pick who last played in the NFL in 2018 but was in the USFL in 2022.
New York Post
