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Analyst Mel Kiper Jr. shared some insight into the Cincinnati Bengals third-round pick Tacario Davis.

There’s no doubt that the Cincinnati Bengals made a major splash before the NFL Draft, trading the No. 10 overall pick for Dexter Lawrence. That filled a major need along the defensive line, but it also meant that the Bengals wouldn’t have a Top 10 pick to fill in their other needs with, so they’d have to get creative.

One of those major needs for Cincinnati was cornerback. The Bengals would look to address that in the third round, snagging Tacario Davis, who spent the 2025 season with the Washington Huskies.

The Davis pick ended up dividing the fanbase. After all, most projections had Davis as a Day 3 pick, not a Day 2 pick, and as a potential developmental player. That’s not the kind of player the Bengals need when there are still questions about who will start in 2026.

Mel Kiper Jr. Shared a More Positive Assessment of the Tacario Davis Pick by the Cincinnati Bengals

Those concerns about the Tacario Davis pick are not completely unfounded. At the same time, they also may have been overblown. That is, if ESPN NFL Draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. is to be believed.

“Mansoor Delane was a popular match for Cincinnati at No. 10 before the Lawrence trade, and while Tacario Davis in the third round isn’t that level of premier cover CB1, he should be a solid option opposite DJ Turner II,” Kiper wrote.

Kiper was writing a draft grade for the Bengals. There, he decided to give Cincinnati a “B.” Without a first-round pick, that isn’t bad.

Besides that, there likely weren’t going to be any shutdown corners on the level of a Delane by the second day of the draft. So, at that point, the Bengals were targeting a player who they likes and believe can become that capable starter in the NFL that they need. In the meantime, there’s no doubt that Davis can still produce.

What to Know About Tacario Davis

A native of Long Beach, California, Tacario Davis was regarded as a consensus three-star recruit coming out of high school. That would lead to him starting his career for the Arizona Wildcats and head coach Jedd Fisch. Prior to the 2025 season, Davis transferred to the Washington Huskies, where Fisch had since taken over as the head coach.

While with Arizona, Davis would be named both an All-Pac-12 and an All-Big 12 performer. That came in 2023 and 2024, respectively. On the whole, he would total 95 tackles, 3 interceptions, and 25 passes defended in 37 college games.

At the NFL Combine, he would run a 4.41 40-yard dash with a 37″ vertical jump. Around that time, Lance Zierlein also wrote up his assessment of Davis.

“Davis is more disruptive than productive with size, length and strength to reroute releases from press,” Zierlein wrote. “He slams catch windows closed when he’s in the neighborhood. While his physical traits make a wideout’s job tougher, their route-running prowess can do the same to Davis. He’s average matching breaks and more complicated routes tend to shake him. His long arms help him defend throws from deep zone and make tackles in the open field. An NFL staff should be able to coax more consistent run support from him. He’ll be tagged as a zone corner, but his eyes and range could earn him free safety consideration.”

The Bengals are going to hope to be that right coaching staff to keep developing Davis. Do that, and this could go down as an incredibly smart pick for Cincinnati.