For Dohnte Meyers, Thursday is not just another preseason game. It is the first real NFL chance in a career that has already asked him to answer every question the hard way, from being a zero-star recruit in Georgia to going undrafted out of Presbyterian College and then rebuilding his case in Canada.
Meyers is slated to play for the Cincinnati Bengals against the Detroit Lions in the preseason opener, and that alone makes the moment notable. He is 26, and the opportunity arrives after a path that included an unsuccessful tryout with the Atlanta Falcons, a connection north of the border through Manny Rodriguez and Trevor Harris, and a stretch with the Saskatchewan Roughriders that turned him from an afterthought into a productive receiver.
The numbers explain why he is here
The NFL chance is not coming out of nowhere. In 2024, Meyers caught 24 passes for 349 yards and one touchdown in four games for Saskatchewan. Last season, he took a bigger step, finishing with 65 catches for 1,056 yards and eight touchdowns while helping the Roughriders win the Grey Cup. That kind of production does not guarantee an NFL job, but it does make a preseason opportunity feel earned rather than speculative.
Dan Pitcher said Meyers has “real juice,” and Zac Taylor pointed to the wider body of work, noting that Meyers has had “a lot of production in his lifetime.” Those comments matter because they suggest the Bengals are not just looking at a camp body. They are looking at a receiver whose résumé now includes evidence of separation, finishing ability and sustained output.
From Division II grind to NFL chance
The broader story is still the ascent. Meyers said he got to Presbyterian because he was smart and he returned kicks, a reminder that his path has never been built on easy assumptions about his upside. Trevor Harris described Division II players who grind through the muck as being tougher than “a $2 steak,” and that is the kind of background that often shapes how players survive the margins of pro football. Meyers, by Harris’s account, kept asking how to refine routes, stayed after practice and learned how to find voids in zones and slow his body down.
That is the profile the Bengals are evaluating now. It is not only about whether Meyers can flash in a preseason setting. It is about whether a player who went from wearing 74 to 88 in Saskatchewan, and from overlooked recruit to CFL producer, can translate that growth to NFL speed and NFL spacing. The first test comes Thursday, but the larger question is whether this is the beginning of a real roster push.
For Meyers, the moment is simple enough. He finally gets the chance to do what he has spent years trying to earn: take an actual NFL snap and let the tape speak for itself.
