One of the more captivating storylines emerging during this year’s NFL preseason has been the rise of Dohnte Meyers. The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver had never played a snap of NFL football until this preseason, yet if he continues to impress, he just might make Cincy’s final roster.
Meyers’ latest superb showing came on Saturday in a 27-9 victory against the Chicago Bears in which he was all over the field. He caught five passes (six targets) for 41 yards, rushed once for nine yards, returned two kickoffs for 54 total yards and returned two punts for 34 total yards.
>> Subscribe to Sports Spectrum Magazine for more stories where sports & faith connect <<
Dohnte Meyers with the third down grab from the slot. His second catch of the day. pic.twitter.com/6xEett71zB
— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) August 22, 2026
Meyers’ big day against Chicago came after he grabbed three passes (on a team-high four targets) for a team-high 29 yards, ran once for 13 yards, and returned one punt for 11 yards in the Bengals’ 16-14 win against the Detroit Lions in the team’s first preseason game.
“Every day, it’s something I can prove myself and continue to compete,” Meyers told reporters after Saturday’s game about his ever-increasing chances to make the 53-man roster. “Nothing’s set in stone. Nothing’s done. And every day’s an opportunity to get better, so I feel like that’s something that I hold myself to and I feel like that’s what the club expects from me.”
The factors working against Meyers are his age (26), his stature (5-foot-11, 186 pounds) and a crowded Bengals wide receiver room. Many believe, however, that his play has more than merited a roster spot.
Despite his newness to Cincinnati’s locker room, Meyers is no stranger to high-level football, or to winning.
He played college football for two years at FCS Presbyterian College before entering the transfer portal and winding up at Division-II Delta State in Cleveland, Mississippi, ahead of the 2020 season. That season was canceled due to COVID-19, but he played 2021 and 2022 with the team. In 2022, he earned first-team All-Gulf South Conference honors.
After going undrafted in 2023 and an unsuccessful tryout with the hometown Atlanta Falcons, he turned his attention to his body. He knew he needed to get bigger, faster and stronger, and to pay for those long training sessions in the summer of 2023, he worked as a food delivery driver.
A door for Meyers to return to football cracked open when he heard about an open tryout in Atlanta with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He paid $100 to participate.
“I balled out,” Meyers told the Bengals’ team website about that tryout performance, and the Roughriders offered him a futures contract in November 2023. But his 2024 debut was delayed due to a broken hand and ended early due to a separated shoulder, and it seemed like he’d never catch a break. During that time, he sought solace in the presence of God.
“That was the only thing that could really provide some stability,” Meyers told the Bengals. “I’ve got to lean on my faith because there’s no way I could justify what’s going on. I’ve got to lean on God. I have to. He’s my foundation. He’s got to be doing something.”
In particular, the Biblical story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers resonated with Meyers. He has been known to post on Instagram — where he lists the Bible verse Romans 8:28 in his bio — about Joseph.
View this post on Instagram
“I look back at my journey, none of this is supposed to happen. None of this makes sense on paper,” Meyers told the Bengals. “You look at Joseph. … Every step he took felt like he was moving further away from where he was called to be, and that’s how I felt.”
Joseph eventually rose to become Egypt’s second in command, and Meyers’ CFL rise during the 2025 season was almost as meteoric. He caught 65 passes for 1,056 yards and eight touchdowns in 15 games, earning an All-Star nod and helping Saskatchewan to a No. 1 seed in the playoffs. The Roughriders would go on to win the Grey Cup, the CFL’s championship game.
“God works in crazy ways,” Meyers told the Bengals team website.
View this post on Instagram
Meyers parlayed his CFL success into multiple workouts with NFL teams, eventually signing with the Bengals in January. His story got just a little bit crazier a week before training camp, when star QB Joe Burrow asked to throw with him. He agreed, only later revealing that he drove overnight from Atlanta to Cincinnati to make it in time.
“If you achieve something that you can do by yourself, you probably didn’t dream big enough,” Meyers told the Bengals. “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.”
Earlier this year after signing with the Bengals, he reposted a video on Instagram of him glorifying God with the caption, “Aye look what God did! Psalms 37:4.”
View this post on Instagram
Just like he did while mired in obscurity and hampered by injuries, Meyers will seek to continue to draw close to God as his dream of being an NFL player draws closer by the day. His last chance to make an impression on Cincinnati’s coaching staff in live game action will come on Friday, when the Bengals finish their preseason slate with a road matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. ET.
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<
RELATED STORIES:
— Ravens’ Calais Campbell grateful his mother made sure he ‘knew Jesus’
— Ravens QB Austin Reed trusts ‘in the Lord’ amid daughters’ premature birth
— SS PODCAST: Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba on SB win, growth in Christ
— Kirk Cousins knows God ‘owns my football career’ as new Raiders QB
— ‘God is good’: Kicker Evan McPherson sends Bengals to 1st SB since ’88
