Dohnte Meyers‘ football journey is the kind of story that makes recruiting rankings look a little silly.
At one point, Meyers had zero Division I scholarship offers. Zero! Not one! Apparently, the recruiting world had collectively decided to keep scrolling.
Fast forward, and Meyers is now on the Cincinnati Bengals’ 53-man roster.
That is quite the career upgrade.
Dohnte Meyers was delivering DoorDash waiting for a shot at pro football after going undrafted out of D-II Delta State.
He paid $100 to tryout for the CFL, where he got noticed by the Bengals.
This was the moment his receivers coach told him he made Cincinnati's 53-man roster. https://t.co/aSx1QKfB35 pic.twitter.com/DdONww0m9m
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) September 1, 2026
Meyers did not exactly take the traditional route to the NFL. Instead, he kept working, kept playing, and eventually landed in the Canadian Football League with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Meyers had separated his shoulder. Surgery required. Season over.
“I just can’t catch a break, man,” Meyers said.
Meyers’ journey up to that point had been defined by trials and tribulations. After converting to receiver his senior year of high school, the 5’11”, 186-pound Meyers was a zero-star recruit. As a result, the only offers he had were from Division III schools. Meyers was able to play football at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, at the FCS level in large part due to his good grades. After two years and 20 starts at receiver for the Blue Hose, Meyers decided to enter the transfer portal without a set plan on where to go next.
“I’m at a crossroads,” Meyers said. “I either get my degree and let things play out or take control of my own destiny.”
Despite a decent showing at the Pro Day, Meyers went undrafted in the 2023 NFL Draft, but he received a rookie minicamp invite from the Atlanta Falcons. Growing up in the nearby Duluth, Georgia, it was a big opportunity. While the goal was to defy the odds and stick around, Meyers wouldn’t make it past minicamp with Atlanta.
“They told me, ‘You over delivered and performed way better than expected,’ but I mean, it’s just a numbers game at that point,” Meyers said.
And just like that, the player who once had no Division I scholarship offers was making a serious name for himself in professional football.
“[My parents] were like ‘Chase your dream,’ so that whole year I was just being all in,” Meyers said.
After grinding through the hot summer months, Meyers’ trainer, Manny Rodriguez of Ultimate 48 Performance, heard of an open tryout Saskatchewan was holding in Atlanta. He told Meyers it would be a good opportunity, so the receiver paid $100 to go to the workout.
“I balled out,” Meyers said with a grin.
That is the part of the story worth remembering.
Meyers went right into NFL workouts after the Grey Cup in mid-November, working out with multiple teams before ultimately deciding to sign with the Bengals. While he cited the talent on the team and coaching staff as primary reasons why he decided on coming to the Queen City, Meyers also said he loved the timing and the trajectory of the organization.
“I just came from winning, the goal is to win,” Meyers said. “There’s high expectations… This is the cream of the crop right here. When you look at who you want to go and make history with, this is what you want to be a part of.”
Meyers officially signed with the Bengals right after the 2025 season ended in January 2026, over three years after he graduated from Delta State. While it hasn’t been the path he necessarily envisioned and there’s still a long way to go before he steps foot on an NFL field, Meyers said he’s learned to depend on his family and his faith even more over that time.
“If you achieve something that you can do by yourself, you probably didn’t dream big enough,” Meyers said. “This can only happen if God does it, because if not, I can’t do this by myself… Everything is perfectly and divinely placed by God.”
The wideout quickly gained the respect of his peers in the Cincinnati locker room, receiving praise in the media from QB Joe Burrow and WR Ja’Marr Chase.
“Dohnte’s been making plays with the Ones,” Chase told Kay Adams during training camp. “He has maybe three or four plays out of the whole day with the Ones, and he makes plays.”
Meyers’ story is not finished yet.
In fact, judging by how quickly he turned opportunities into production, he might just be getting started.
