Highly trusted member of Bengals’ defense earns familiar reward for final five weeks of the season
Jalen Davis is staying on the Bengals’ roster for the rest of the year.
Cornerback Jalen Davis will be a part of the Cincinnati Bengals’ active roster for the final stretch of the regular season.
Cincinnati officially signed Davis off the practice squad Monday, which fills the vacancy left behind from linebacker Brian Asamoah II going the Reserve/Injured list with a knee injury.
Davis has been with the Bengals going all the way back to 2020. Cincinnati’s defense has seen a few changes since then, but the former undrafted free agent has rolled with the punches to stay in the building. His work over the last two weeks is just another feather in his cap.
Jalen Davis proves to be valuable once more to the Bengals
Alterations became necessary in the Bengals’ defensive backfield when Cam Taylor-Britt went down with a season-ending foot injury. Taylor-Britt had been a starter on the outside along with DJ Turner II, and Dax Hill in the slot. Hill ended up moving outside to take Taylor-Britt’s place, which left a hole in the nickelback spot.
Enter Davis, who had been biding his time on the practice squad for the first 11 weeks of the season. Davis was elevated to the roster for the last two weeks and logged two starts where Hill was moved from. He logged three tackles considered stops for the defense, a pass breakup, and a sack in 79 snaps coming off the practice squad.
Clubs can only elevate practice squad players a maximum of three times in a season, so Davis could’ve only been elevated once more without being signed to the roster.
Cincinnati didn’t need one more trial run for a player who’s been in the locker room since the beginning of the decade.
Davis has been here before. He earned his first real contract with the Bengals following his arrival to the practice squad in the middle of the 2020 season. He was a staple on the roster through 2023 before being bumped down to practice squad life for all of 2024. 2025 was looking like a repeat of that until Taylor-Britt’s injury.
Despite seeing the field for the first time this year in late November, Davis has already played more defensive snaps this season than any of his seven previous years in the NFL. That number will reach well into the hundreds if he continues to play significant snaps, and based on how the first two weeks have gone, he should.
Davis got a game ball Thanksgiving night for forcing one of the Bengals’ five turnovers against the Baltimore Ravens. Now he’s got another five weeks to continue proving his worth to the team that’s stuck with him for so many years.
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