Domenique Davis showed up 'out of nowhere' to make a bid for the Bengals' roster

Defensive tackle Domenique Davis’ football career should have ended in July 2020. Right before the start of training camp, the New York Jets cut him and told him to stop trying to play through a significant injury that eventually took Davis two years to recover from.

Undrafted free agents from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke aren’t supposed to make it in the NFL. Players who are out of football for two entire years aren’t supposed to make it either, and Davis was sidelined for two long stretches at different points of his career.

And yet here Davis is at Cincinnati Bengals training camp, making a real push for the 53rd spot on the roster.

“Domenique Davis, oh man, that’s my guy,” Bengals defensive tackle BJ Hill said. “He’s showing his talent every day. I think he’s going to be good for us.”

“Davis has come out of nowhere,” defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “But I know the preparation and work he put in this offseason.”

Davis is a 6-foot-2, 326-pound, 27-year-old run-stuffing nose tackle. While Davis had four pressures in the game and set up Bengals safety Tycen Anderson’s pick-six against the Green Bay Packers with his pass rush up the middle, his biggest strength is his ability to hold his ground at the line of scrimmage and stop the run.

From 'late bloomer' to missing years of football

There’s not a player in Bengals’ training camp who was more overlooked than Davis.

“I was a late bloomer,” Davis said. “I went from 5-foot-9, 205 pounds to 6-3, 250. “I was focused on things I shouldn’t have been. I was getting into trouble. Then in high school, my mom told me I needed to find something to do.”

Davis didn’t get much playing time at Scotland High School in North Carolina until his junior year. Then, he became a two-time all-conference player for a team that appeared in the state championship game.

“I didn’t have good grades,” Davis said. “I didn’t know if I was going to go to college. I had bigger schools looking at me, but I didn't have the grades.”

In 2014, Davis went to Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and redshirted the season. Then he transferred to Pembroke, where he found out he was ineligible for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. He didn’t play a single down of live football between when his high school career ended in 2013 and 2017.

“The toughest part was staying motivated,” Davis said. “I knew I wanted to make it to the NFL and take care of my family. I was literally on my own.”

Davis' football journey reaches the NFL

Davis was a role player at Pembroke in 2017, he found his stride in 2018 and he really caught scouts’ attention as a sixth-year senior in 2019. According to the Laurinburg Exchange, Pembroke has only had four players in the school’s history even get a tryout for an NFL team, and none of those players appeared in an NFL game. Davis played well enough in the Mountain East Conference that NFL teams were scouting him as an undrafted free agent.

Davis signed with the Jets as an undrafted free agent in May of 2020. Then before the start of training camp, Davis failed his physical, and got waived.

“I had a broken bone in my foot, and I was still trying to play on it,” Davis said. “It was rough. I took that year off. I trained at Pembroke in their facility. I told my agent I was healthy. I was talking to teams, but they were scared to pull the trigger on me. I didn’t have any recent film. I was already a small school prospect.”

After spending the entire 2020 football season rehabbing on his own, Davis and his agent tried to find him a shot for a rookie minicamp in 2021. No one was interested in a nose tackle from a small college who hadn’t played in a game in nearly two years.

Davis never gave up on NFL dream

Davis had his chance to give up, but he didn’t even get another full-time job. He kept his focus on his football career. His priorities were training and taking care of his son. He knew that a football career was the best way for him to take care of his family in the longrun, so he kept going.

Finally, he got a call back from a team: The Houston Gamblers of the USFL.

“The rest is history,” Davis said.

Davis spent the 2022 spring season in the USFL, recording 57 tackles and 3.5 sacks. Gamblers coach Ty Warren, a long-time starter for the New England Patriots, changed Davis’ career with what he taught him.

“He saw something in me,” Davis said. “He helped me develop real skills. He saw I was raw. He helped me mentally, with film and with everything on the field. You always have to perfect your craft because someone is always working harder than you. He gave me that boost to go hard every day.”

After Davis played well in the USFL, Davis said a lot of teams started returning his agent’s call. He had multiple offers for training camp in 2022, and Davis’ agent told him that the Bengals didn’t have as much depth at defensive tackle as some other teams that were interested in him.

Davis had a solid 2022 training camp for a nose tackle who was just trying to break into the NFL, but he was also exhausted jumping back into football right after the USFL season ended. Davis showed the Bengals enough to earn a spot on their practice squad, and he appeared in two games last season while DJ Reader was injured.

Now, Davis is playing the best football of his career, and he’s competing with Jay Tufele to be the Bengals’ fifth defensive tackle this season. Even if Davis doesn’t make the team, he looks like he’s on track for a spot on the Bengals’ practice squad again in 2023.

Finally, he’s getting the chance to play football and figure out how good of a player he can be.

“I’ve been waiting for this my whole life,” Davis said. “When the time comes, and you’ve been preparing for it non-stop, it isn’t a big adjustment.  I’m 27, so I’m already supposed to be here. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I’m not that young anymore. I’ve got to put more work in so I can keep being on this field. In my head, I’m late. I’ve just got to keep going.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Bengals DT Domenique Davis fighting for NFL roster spot