It always seems to work out this way when the Football Gods roam the universe like they'll do Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's FOX 19) during the Bengals' game against the Cardinals at Paycor Stadium.
Jalen Davis, the Bengals' nickel who has flipped the coin of the status quo, is having his career year in a career that began ever so briefly with the Dolphins and Cardinals.
Naturally, he faces the Cardinals following a week he registered his first NFL interception in Miami nearly eight years after those Dolphins signed him to the first of his more than 20 NFL transactions.
The undrafted Davis' interception against Dolphins first-round wide receiver Jaylen Waddle was not only storybook but textbook as he twisted his head perfectly to pick a go ball that didn't down the sidelines.
"That play will live here for a long time," says Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden.
Davis, who turns 30 in six weeks, is enjoying it right now. "The happiest," he's ever been in those eight years in the league. He's played in 62 NFL games, three with the Dolphins in 2018, two with the Cardinals in 2019, and the rest with the Bengals. He didn't get that first start until last month. He went seven years between sacks when he got Drake Maye last month. He's played 177 snaps in the last five weeks after playing 428 in his previous seven seasons.
And here come the Cards.
This is why Golden turned to Davis six weeks ago in the wake of the injury to cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt.
Since Golden moved Dax Hill out of the slot to replace CTB, he needed experience inside to help rookie linebackers Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr. And it's going to be the opposite of last Sunday in Miami against a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start in Quinn Ewers. Here comes a decade of starts in Jacoby Brissett playing his 100th NFL game.
"We couldn't afford to have another guy that was kind of training on the job, and he really, really settled us down," Golden says. "He allowed the two young guys inside to take that next step. Took a chip off the plate of the safeties, too. He's really responded for us."
Davis thinks safety Budda Baker is the only Cardinal player or coach left from his time there. You have to go back to Zac Taylor's first year as head coach of the Bengals, and Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase's last year at LSU. Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon was the cornerbacks coach for the Colts.
2019 and that's how the league turns over and where long shots like Davis become safe bets.
"That's just crazy," says Davis of the schedule after Friday's practice, about to lunch at his locker. "Both of them back-to-back. Crazy how it works out."
Davis isn't giving the Cards a good going over this week, just to see who he thinks he could beat out on his old roster.
"I could do that with every team," Davis says.
The year 2019 is also the season a young Division II cornerbacks coach named Charles Burks with his own longshot story hooked on with the Dolphins as an assistant cornerbacks coach. Davis didn't make it to Opening Day. Burks did, but they resonated with each other.
Still do.
A generous 5-10, 186 pounds, the computer spit Davis out.
"Sometimes in the NFL, people are afraid to give people opportunities because this guy may not have the second-round tag or the first-round tag," says Burks, finishing his seventh year in the league. "You can talk about an undrafted player and say all the things he can't do, but you won't see all the things he can do.
"Jalen's on a beautiful journey," Burks says. "It's not finished."
Like Davis, Burks came up hard. He broke into coaching at East Central, living on top of the concession stands in Ada, Okla.
"The Popcorn Shack," they called it.
Hard, like current practice squad rookie cornerback Bralyn Lux. Undrafted out of Texas Tech, he's been here all year on the practice squad and done everything but play in a game.
"I told Bralyn Lux that he's in the unfortunate position that he has to prove everyone wrong," Burks says. "The luxury of being a high draft pick is you just have to prove everyone right."
Hard, like that hard day's night in Davis' La Mesa, Calif., home on the outskirts of San Diego. It was doubling as a graduation party from Utah State and a draft day party, but the call that was supposed to come never came.
After all, he was a consensus second-team All-American.
"He just went into his room before the draft was over," Verdis Davis told Bengals.com in 2021. "That killed us."
Verdis, a 20-year retired Navy first class petty officer who coached Jalen in youth ball, told him then what he always had been telling him. Forget the size. They called him "Little Train," because he ran over the bigger kids.
"Keep pushing," Verdis Davis urged his son.
That's why last year Davis gave his signed jersey to his position coach at Utah State. Coach Juice. Julius Brown, now at Texas Christian. When TCU played at the University of Cincinnati last year, Davis showed up at their hotel with his No. 35.
Brown won't ever forget what Davis said when Brown's sister-in-law asked why Davis offered such a gesture so long after they were together.
"He pushed me so hard. He's the realest guy I ever played for," Davis told her.
"I had to laugh because it made me recall those conversations when he was mad," Brown says. "I know how hard I was on him."
Hard enough that Brown isn't surprised it's eight years later and Davis is finally playing regularly from scrimmage.
"It shows you his character. It shows you his drive. It shows you how smart of a player he is," Brown says. "I remember we had an emotional heart-to-heart, and I was telling him, 'Just be who Jalen is.' I'm not sure he ever heard that before. When he got two picks that game, he just looked at me and said, 'Thanks, Coach."
Ask Davis what it's been like to wait and watch, and he says, "Horrible."
Brown isn't so sure. He remembers Davis' senior season, when Brown's daughter Lyric was an infant and Davis would come by to visit.
"You know what the thing he was happiest about?" Brown asks. "He is a dad. He goes, 'Coach, remember when I would come over and hang out with Lyric?' He says, 'Coach, I've got my own son. He's one. I tell my wife about that all the time. I used to go to Coach Juice's house and hold Lyric and now she's eight.'"
Now Davis is eight years old in the NFL and making his way so well, he'll meet up with the Football Gods on Sunday.
