Cal Football: NFL Draft Preview -- Friday Seems Likely Selection Day for Ashtyn Davis

Hurdler-turned-safety expected to be the first Cal player to go in NFL draft

Former Cal safety Ashtyn Davis could go where no player from the Justin Wilcox coaching era has gone before — in the first three rounds of the NFL draft.

Davis’ pre-draft projections have been all over the map, but many mock drafts envision the one-time walk-on and former track star going in the second or third round. That would mean he’ll be picked Friday.

The NFL draft begins Thursday (5 to 8:30 p.m.) with the first round. The second and third rounds are scheduled for Friday (4 to 8:30 p.m.), with rounds four through seven on Saturday (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.). The draft will be aired all three days on ABC, ESPN, NFL Network and ESPN Deportes.

*** Davis answers our pre-draft questions.

You’ll see from these various projections on Davis that there is little consensus about when he will be drafted:

— CBS Sports projects him to go with the fourth pick of the second round, No. 36 overall, to the New York Giants. It’s the highest we’ve seen Davis slotted.

“Some fans will want Isaiah Simmons at No. 4, but the Giants go offensive tackle and get their athletic playmaking safety at the top of Round 2. Davis is a former track athlete who can patrol centerfield or play in the slot,” wrote Ryan Wilson of CBS, who envisions Davis as the second pure safety selected.

— At the far end of the spectrum, draft analyst Chad Reuter of NFL.com says Davis won’t be picked until the sixth round, when the Indianapolis Colts select him at No. 193 overall. According to Reuter, 13 safeties will be drafted before Davis.

— Draft Wire’s Luke Easterling in USA Today takes the middle ground, projecting Davis as a third-rounder to the Miami Dolphins with the No. 70 pick.

—Walter Football’s most recent mock draft places Davis in the fourth round, going to the Arizona Cardinals at No. 114.

No Cal player has been drafted in the first three rounds since quarterback Davis Webb, who played his one Cal season during coach Sonny Dykes’ final season in Berkeley, and went in the third round in 2017 to the New York Giants.

*** Coach Justin Wilcox talks after Cal's win over Illinois in the Redbox Bowl about the contributions of Davis, who had to miss the game after a minor surgical procedure: 

The highest-drafted Cal players the past two seasons, since Wilcox took the reins, were linebacker Devante Downs (Minnesota Vikings) and defensive end James Looney (Green Bay Packers), both chosen in the seventh round in 2018.

Davis, a second-team All-Pac-12 selection last fall, could be the first Cal safety chosen among the first three rounds since Chris Conte was picked in Round 3 by the Chicago Bears in 2011. Conte spent eight NFL seasons but has not played since taking a wicked stiff arm from Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Vance McDonald on Monday Night Football in Week 3 of the 2018 season.

Davis was an All-American high hurdler on the Cal track team before walking on to the football team.

Meanwhile, Evan Weaver — a consensus first-team All-American and the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year — likely will hear his name called Saturday. The nation’s leading tackler last season could go as soon as the fifth round, unless he unexpectedly climbs higher.

*** Click here for Wilcox's comments on all three of Cal's draft hopefuls.

Reuter of NFL.com is projecting Weaver to sit until the seventh round, when the New York Giants will take him at No. 247, but Walter Football expects him to be taken in the fifth round at No. 151 to the Los Angeles Chargers.

Safety Jaylinn Hawkins, who compiled 10 career interceptions for the Bears, participated in the NFL combine but is not projected to be drafted. More likely, he will sign with a team as a free agent.

Four ex-Cal players were signed as free agents following the 2019 draft, and three of them made active rosters and saw regular-season action last fall.

Running back Patrick Laird, who began his career as a walk-on at Cal, rushed for 168 yards and scored one touchdown and caught 23 passes for 204 yards for the Miami Dolphins. Patrick Mekari played 11 games, starting five of them, at guard for the Baltimore Ravens, and linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk played in nine games, totaling seven tackles, for the Carolina Panthers.

Tight end Ian Bunting, who came to Cal in 2018 as a graduate transfer from Michigan, did not see action with the Chicago Bears last season, but was signed in December by the Indianapolis Colts.

CAL’S TOP NFL DRAFT PICKS (Since 2000)

First round

2000 – Deltha O’Neal – CB (Denver, 15)

2001 – Andre Carter – DE (San Francisco, 7)

2003 – Kyle Boller – QB (Baltimore, 19)

2003 – Nnamdi Asomugha – CB (Oakland, 31)

2005 – Aaron Rodgers – QB (Green Bay, 24)

2007 – Marshawn Lynch – RB (Buffalo, 12)

2009 – Alex Mack – OL (Cleveland, 21)

2010 – Tyson Alualu – DL (Jacksonville, 10

2010 – Jahvid Best – RB (Detroit, 30)

2011 – Cameron Jordan – DL (New Orleans, 24)

2016 – Jared Goff – (Los Angeles Rams, 1)

Second round

2002 – Langston Walker – OT (Oakland, 53)

2005 – J.J. Arrington – RB (Arizona, 44)

2008 – DeSean Jackson – WR (Philadelphia, 49)

2011 – Shane Vereen – RB (New England, 56)

2012 – Mitchell Schwartz – OL (Cleveland, 37)

2012 – Mychal Kendricks – LB (Philadelphia, 46)

Third round

2007 – Brandon Mebane – DT (Seattle, 85)

2007 – Daymeion Hughes – CB (Indianapolis, 95)

2008 – Craig Stevens – TE (Tennessee, 85)

2008 – Thomas DeCoud – S (Atlanta, 98)

2011 – Chris Conte – S (Chicago, 93)

2012 – Bryan Anger – P (Jacksonville, 70)

2013 – Keenan Allen – WR (San Diego, 76)

2014 – Richard Rodgers – TE (Green Bay, 98)

2017 – Davis Webb – QB (New York Giants, 87)