Faion
Hicks.
Faion
Hicks.
Wisconsin
"A four-year Wisconsin starter whose feet and instincts were never the question, drafted 232nd by Denver to find out whether a 192-pound corner with 30-inch arms could survive without the safety help that made him."Pre-draft read
A compact, sticky boundary corner who won with technique and timing rather than length or bulk. At 5-10 and 192 pounds with 30 5/8-inch arms, Hicks lived in press-bail and off-man, mirroring routes cleanly and getting his head around to play the ball.
The question through his college career was speed, and he answered it at Wisconsin's pro day, where the Denver beat reported a 4.37 forty while draft databases logged the same workout at 4.49. Either way, his change of direction was better than his long speed: a 4.21 shuttle and a 6.90 three-cone. He tackles willingly for his size but gives up too much mass against bigger receivers, and Wisconsin's zone-heavy structure kept him from carrying vertical routes alone.
A zone-match defense that keeps his eyes on the quarterback and lets him drive on throws in front of him instead of trailing vertically.
Year 1: fifth corner and kick coverage body. Ceiling: a nickel-package outside corner in a heavy-zone system.
A press-man defense that asks him to travel with a boundary X receiver, where his arm length and mass both fail at the line.
Wisconsin's structure flattered him; a defense that removes the safety help removes most of what worked.
Faion Hicks highlights, seventh-round cornerback
The reel Denver released after taking him 232nd overall.
NFL prospect: Wisconsin's Faion Hicks
Coverage tape from his four years as a Badgers starter.
Faion Hicks on his 2022 pro day
The workout that changed the speed conversation before the draft.
Hicks came out of Charles W. Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines, Florida, as a three-star recruit with 10 offers, and committed to Wisconsin in late 2016 over Appalachian State and Iowa State among others, starting his college career in Madison in 2017.
He did not register defensive production as a freshman, then became a regular in the secondary as a sophomore in 2018 with 33 tackles and three pass breakups in 11 games. The 2019 season brought 32 tackles and a pass breakup across Wisconsin's 12-game slate, and the shortened 2020 Big Ten campaign gave him seven games with 13 tackles and four pass breakups.
His final year was his best in coverage. As a senior in 2021 he played 11 games and posted 28 tackles with nine pass breakups, the kind of ball production that gets a corner onto late-round boards. He left Madison having appeared in 41 games with 106 tackles, two tackles for loss and 17 pass breakups. The pre-draft evaluation was straightforward: a four-year Big Ten starter with good feet, real instincts and technique that would translate, but short arms, a 192-pound frame and speed that scouts needed a pro day to trust. The Denver Broncos took him with the 232nd pick.
- 01
Four years of Big Ten starting experience
41 career games against pro-caliber receiving rooms in a defense that demanded disciplined technique.
- 02
Ball production in his final year
nine pass breakups as a senior, the best coverage season of his career and the reason he got drafted.
- 03
Elite short-area quickness
a 4.21 short shuttle and 6.90 three-cone let him mirror the first two breaks of a route without panicking.
- 04
Explosive lower body
a 37.5-inch vertical and 10-foot-3 broad jump give him the ability to contest the high point against taller receivers.
- 05
Willing tackler at his size
he came downhill in run support rather than waiting to be blocked out of the play on the perimeter.
- 01
Short arms at 30 5/8 inches
he cannot recover once a receiver stacks him, and the press reps get decided at the line of scrimmage.
- 02
Contested long speed
the pro day timing was reported anywhere from 4.37 to 4.49, and the tape never settled the question either way.
- 03
Slight frame at 192 pounds
bigger boundary receivers can box him out on back-shoulder and fade throws he has otherwise covered.
- 04
Scheme-protected college tape
Wisconsin's zone structure kept help over the top, leaving few reps of true isolated man coverage.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Wisconsin | 11 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2019 | Wisconsin | 12 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2020 | Wisconsin | 7 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 2021 | Wisconsin | 11 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| Career | — | 41 | 106 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 0 |
The 2020 and 2021 lines come from cfbstats, whose player pages include bowl games, and the 2018 and 2019 lines from the CFBTrack season ledger. CFBTrack's regular-season career snapshot reads 105 tackles, two tackles for loss and 16 passes defended; the figures shown here are one tackle and one breakup higher because cfbstats counts Wisconsin's 2021 bowl game. His 2017 freshman season produced no recorded defensive statistics and is omitted rather than entered as zeros. Interceptions are not verified in either source for any season and are therefore left blank rather than recorded as zero.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Denver depth corner from the same era whose career lived on the practice squad wire.
Undersized technique corner who built a real career by winning in zone and in the slot.
Another Wisconsin corner whose pro time never got past camp bodies and practice squads.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Denver kept him on the roster as a rookie and he appeared in two games late in 2022, at Carolina on November 27 and at Baltimore on December 4, without recording a defensive statistic. He signed a reserve/future contract on January 9, 2023 and was waived on August 29 of that year, which started the churn. New Orleans added him to the practice squad on September 13, 2023, gave him a reserve/future deal in January 2024 and waived him on June 17. Cleveland signed him on August 4, 2024 and cut him three weeks later, and Seattle picked him up for the practice squad on August 30, releasing him on November 26. ESPN credits him with two tackles in two games across the 2024 season.
After the NFL came the minor leagues. The Birmingham Stallions signed him in March 2025 and released him in May. Montreal of the CFL signed him in December 2025, released him on May 30, 2026 and brought him back on June 24. He has spent four years chasing a roster spot across three leagues, which is its own kind of professional persistence, but the seventh-round math was unforgiving: without length or confirmed speed, a technique corner needs to win a special teams job immediately, and he never locked one down.