Arizona fittingly addressed the defensive backfield with a special selection in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
With the No. 226 overall pick, the Cardinals selected Miami defensive back Jaden Davis.
The 226th selection holds reverent significance in Arizona. It's the exact pick the Cards used in 1998 to select former defensive back Pat Tillman.
Tillman famously left football in 2002, eight months after the Sept. 11 attacks, to enlist in the U.S. Army.
Tillman, 27, and allied Afghan militiaman Sayed Farhad were killed in action by American friendly fire in Spera, Afghanistan, on April 22, 2004.
In honor of the 20th anniversary of Tillman's death, two members of the Pat Tillman Foundation -- Army veteran Jeremy Glasstetter and Air Force veteran Deborah Trimble -- announced the 226th selection of Davis from Detroit on Saturday.
An Arizona State linebacker selected in the seventh round, Tillman played four NFL seasons for the Cardinals, where he shifted to defensive back.
Davis, a 5-foot-10, 185-pound cornerback out of Miami, played 52 games over the course of his collegiate career with 110 tackles, 14 passes defensed and an interception. He spent his first four years with the Oklahoma Sooners before finishing things out as a redshirt senior with the Hurricanes, bringing his career to a close by delivering his first career sack and first two forced fumbles during 2023.
Davis joins fellow secondary players Max Melton, Elijah Jones and Dadrion Taylor-Demerson in Arizona's 2024 draft class as the Cardinals look to revamp a passing defense that allowed the league's 30th-most touchdowns through the air last year. In the case of Davis, he'll likely look to make his mark on special teams with a chance to later crack the lineup in a rotational role.
