Former Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver Dohnte Meyers is doing everything he can to make the most of his opportunity with the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals.
And his efforts have begun to turn heads as the preseason swings into high gear,
Cincinnati Fox Sports director Joe Danneman joined the SportsCage earlier this week to talk about Meyers and how he’s put himself in the picture to potentially crack the Bengals line-up.
“This has become one of the real good feel-good stories of the Cincinnati Bengals training camp, I would even say that it's become the best story of the Bengals training camp here in 2026,” Danneman began. “You can't hide what he's doing right here at training camp. And especially you can't hide what he did in the preseason opener.”
That game — a 16-14 victory over the Detroit Lions on Thursday night — saw Meyers catch three passes for 29 yards and run once for 13 yards, with his 42 yards from scrimmage leading the Bengals offence.
That alone was enough to attract some attention, but it was a story quarterback Joe Burrow told after the game that pushed Meyers to another level of fame in Cincinnati camp.
“The week before training camp, I texted him and I was like ‘Hey, are you in town?’ He's like, ‘I can be.’ And I was like, ‘Can you be here tomorrow at 11?’ He's like, ‘Yeah,’” Burrow said. “I come to find out he drove from Atlanta that night to be there to throw the next day. That’s the kind of guy he is.”
To be clear, that’s a seven-hour overnight haul.
“He's had a great camp,” Burrow added. “He's quick, shifty, understands what we're trying to do. You know, he's played a lot in the CFL so he comes over here and hasn't played a lot in the NFL. But he's got a lot of reps under his belt. He's a get that we've seen a lot out of.”
Danneman said that work ethic and the effort to make the team hasn’t gone unnoticed. Add that to the fact Meyers was basically a complete unknown until he became a 1,000 yard receiver with Saskatchewan and the legend grows.
“He said he always felt like this was his calling to go for it and you have to respect a guy that looks at it that way,” Danneman said
For all the sudden interest in Meyers’ early time with the Bengals, he’s still a long shot to make the team, especially given the amount of depth in the Cincinnati receiving corps. That’s where his experience in other facets of the game could help him stick around.
“I think he's probably the fourth or fifth best wide receiver on the team, but it's always not just about your ability,” Danneman said. “It's about your projections. Can you also return kicks?
So that's where I think it's going to be make it or break it here in these final two preseason games. Dohnte Meyers is going to get looks returning and I think that's going to be the deciding factor if he sticks here in Cincinnati or has to find some work someplace else.”
That last bit — finding work elsewhere in the NFL — isn’t out of the realm of possibility should things not work out with the Bengals.
“So his approach is this: I'm going to go show out here, I'm going to do everything I can to try to make the team here in Cincinnati,” Danneman said. “But even if it doesn't work out here, someone's going to give him a shot. He deserves a shot. He's earned it from what he's done so far. I think that's what is really great about his story. He's earned everything that he's getting right now, right? That nothing was given to this kid.”
You can check out Barney Shynkaruk’s full chat with Joe Danneman below.
