Isaiah Davis wasn’t included on a list of the nation’s 247 best running backs in the 2020 college football recruiting class.
He is nowhere to be found among the state of Missouri’s 65 highest-ranked recruits that same year.
But Davis’ name always will be next to pick No. 173 in the 2024 NFL Draft after the Jets chose the former South Dakota State star — not any of his peers who once earned more recruiting stars from 247Sports — in the fifth round.
“It’s a dream come true being here. I always had a goal in mind to play in the NFL,” said Davis, whose only other college scholarship offer was to play linebacker at Missouri Southern State. “I never [had] doubt in myself. Part of this whole journey, I feel like the reason why I’ve come as far as I have is I’ve always had [doubters] that’s made me be so much hungrier.”
The Jets drafted two running backs — fourth-rounder Braelon Allen is the other — one year after using a fifth-round pick on Israel Abanikanda.
The pecking order behind starter Breece Hall — whom Davis met Saturday in the locker room before the final day of rookie minicamp — is wide open.
Davis led FCS players with 1,578 rushing yards last season.
He scored 51 touchdowns in 46 career games. He became a workhorse with 485 carries over the last two seasons but swatted away a question about fresh legs.
“After these last couple months training,” Davis said, “my body is the best it’s ever felt.”
Head coach Robert Saleh pointed to Davis as one of a handful of rookies whose physicality could become a “contagious trait that permeates throughout the entire building.”
“That’s the standard you’ve got to live by, play the game by,” Davis said. “I’ve always played the game with physicality. Running back, special teams, whatever it may, asserting dominance and being physical.”
First-round pick OT Olu Fashanu (quad strain) was limited to some movement drills with a trainer at the start of practice. Third-round pick WR Malachi Corley ran through the foot ladder and jogged under some deep throws from a staffer.
Seventh-round pick safety Jaylen Key — the last pick of the draft — has embraced people around the Jets’ facility and back home in Florida calling him “Mr. Irrelevant.”
“It’s something you get used to quick,” Key said. “I like it.”
The odds are stacked longest against the 47 players who attended minicamp on a tryout basis and need to flash on limited opportunities.
Shane Hooks, a 6-5 receiver from Auburn, did just that by making two highlight-reel deep catches against tight coverage.
The first was a full-extension diving grab after which he popped up looking for more yards, and the second was reaching over the top of a defensive back and finishing the play in the end zone.
Three veteran free agents with three or more years of NFL experience tried out at minicamp: RB Qadree Ollison, CB Breon Borders and S Obi Melifonwu.
Melifonwu, 30, is a former second-round pick of the Raiders who last played in the NFL in 2018 but was in the USFL in 2022.
