The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Ray Davis.
Ray Davis 2024 NFL COMBINE RESULTS
- Height: 5-foot-8
- Weight: 211 pounds
- 40-yard dash: 4.52 seconds
- 10-yard split: 1.56 seconds
- 20-yard shuttle: 4.51 seconds
- Vertical jump: 35"
- Broad jump: 9'11"
- Arm length: 30 ¼"
Ray Davis 2024 NFL DRAFT SCOUTING REPORT
STRENGTHS
- Short, compact build with extensive experience in zone, gap scheme run games and shotgun and as an I-back.
- Naturally quick and decisive with his cuts. Ran with an efficient economy of movement and no wasted motion.
- Ran with good patience and vision in the zone run game and then with decisiveness and short-area burst to hit the hole.
- Decisive with cuts at all levels of the defense. Innate feel for gap fluidity and defensive flow, pace and tempo.
- Stop-and-start ability with the quickness to re-accelerate. Dictated defensive flow, allowing blocks to take hold.
- Darting, slashing style at second and third levels of defense. Made safeties miss in space without losing a stride.
- Physical runner with natural power. Low center of gravity with good contact balance and strong finishing traits.
- Good receiver in screen game and when working out of the backfield. Showed good hands and route-running ability.
- Showed awareness of blitz pressure and some competitive toughness in picking up free blitzers. Aggressive.
WEAKNESSES
- Not truly explosive re: long speed. Not a home run hitter — although few running backs are.
- More of darter at second and third levels than shifty and elusive. Needed off-arm at times to maintain balance.
- There were some runs where he slowed his feet and braced for contact at second and third levels of defense.
NFL TRANSITION
Davis is one of the more intriguing running backs in the 2024 draft class given his impressive traits profile. That includes his pass-catching ability and his extensive experience as an I-back running both zone and gap scheme concepts.
Davis packs a lot of natural quickness and power in his stout, compact frame. That showed in his explosive, short-area burst both as a one-cut downhill runner in the zone run game and when working off puller-wrapper blocks in the gap scheme run game. Davis has a low center of gravity and a strong lower half that allows him to be short-area explosive with burst and acceleration; he has the strong leg drive and contact balance to work through first and second levels of the defense.
There was an efficient smoothness and easy fluidity to Davis' running — he runs with controlled yet decisive cuts and change of direction that consistently showed up on tape. What adds to Davis' projection and transition to the next level is that he can be a factor in the passing game as both a receiver out of the backfield and detached from the formation running intermediate and vertical routes, as well as as a pass protector with awareness of blitz pressure and the aggressive toughness to block.
Davis is one of the better running back prospects in the 2024 draft class, and with his experience in multiple run schemes and his ability in the passing game, he can be a three-down contributor relatively early in his NFL career — although he is not likely to be the premier running back in the rotation.
Davis has the look and feel of a professional runner with his refined sense of pace and tempo, vision, short-area burst and acceleration, contact balance and natural feel for navigating space at the second and third levels of the defense.
The question as you project re: Davis, as he matures in his NFL career, is whether he can be a primary back. My sense is different teams and coaches will see that differently, with much of that answer dependent on offensive scheme and running back deployment.
OTHER NOTES
Davis played one year at Kentucky after playing two seasons at Vanderbilt and two seasons at Temple. Overall, he started 37 games in his five-year college career — Davis finished with 199-1129-5.7-14 TD at Kentucky.
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