The NFL dream was still there. The paycheck wasn't.
Meyers would spend his days lifting weights, running routes and trying to transform himself into the type of receiver professional teams could no longer overlook. Then, when the workouts ended, he would turn on DoorDash and Uber Eats and drive around Atlanta deep into the night.
There was no NFL contract waiting for him. No signing bonus funding his training. No guarantee that any of it would work.
Three years later, Meyers doesn't have to wonder anymore.
He is an NFL player.
The Cincinnati Bengals finalized their initial 53-man roster Sunday, and Meyers was among the wide receivers who made the team, completing one of the most improbable journeys into the NFL this season.
From a zero-star high school recruit to small-school college football, from paying for an open CFL tryout to delivering food to finance his training, Meyers kept chasing a league that had repeatedly passed him by.
Now he's officially part of it.
Overlooked From the Beginning
Long before Meyers was competing for catches in Cincinnati, he was trying to convince someone to give him an opportunity.
Coming out of Norcross High School in Georgia, Meyers was rated as a zero-star prospect and didn't receive the type of Division I scholarship offers that typically begin an NFL résumé.
Instead, he started his college career at Presbyterian College, an FCS program in South Carolina. He started 20 games over two seasons there before eventually transferring to Division II Delta State.
At Delta State, Meyers finally began putting together the production he believed he was capable of all along.
Across two seasons, he caught 120 passes for 1,542 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Still, when the 2023 NFL Draft arrived, Meyers' name wasn't called.
And when the draft ended, the phone didn't suddenly start ringing.
He was a productive Division II receiver entering a league overflowing with prospects from college football's biggest programs.
So Meyers went back to work.
Training by Day, DoorDash by Night
Meyers returned home to Atlanta and essentially structured his life around one objective: becoming a professional football player.
His days included lifting, speed work, receiver drills and recovery sessions. At night, he needed a way to pay for it all.
So he delivered food.
Meyers worked for DoorDash and Uber Eats, sometimes making deliveries until the early morning hours before waking up and doing the entire routine again. His father also took on additional work to help financially support his son's pursuit.
It wasn't glamorous.
There were no cameras following him through workouts. There weren't NFL scouts standing on the sideline every morning.
There was simply the belief that eventually somebody would see what he saw in himself.
Then came a $100 gamble.
Meyers learned that the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League were holding an open tryout in Atlanta.
He paid the $100 fee and showed up.
That workout changed his life.
The CFL Door Finally Opens
Saskatchewan gave Meyers the opportunity he had spent years chasing.
Even then, his path wasn't easy.
A hand injury delayed the beginning of his 2024 season, but once Meyers finally got onto the field, he immediately showed he belonged. He recorded 101 receiving yards in each of his first two CFL games before a separated shoulder eventually ended his season and required surgery.
For another player, it might have felt like one setback too many.
Meyers came back.
And in 2025, everything changed.
He caught 65 passes for 1,056 yards and eight touchdowns in 15 games for Saskatchewan, averaging 16.2 yards per reception. He also contributed as a return specialist and helped the Roughriders capture the Grey Cup championship.
The player who couldn't attract significant college recruiting attention was suddenly one of the CFL's most productive receivers.
And this time, the NFL noticed.
Cincinnati Comes Calling
The Bengals brought Meyers in for a workout following his breakout CFL season and signed him to a reserve/future contract in January.
It wasn't a ceremonial opportunity.
Meyers arrived in Cincinnati and forced himself into the conversation.
Throughout training camp, he consistently made plays. His quickness, separation and experience caught the attention of Cincinnati's coaching staff and quarterbacks.
Joe Burrow praised Meyers' camp, pointing to his quickness, understanding of the offense and the experience he accumulated playing professionally in Canada.
Then Meyers carried that momentum into preseason games.
He paced Cincinnati's offense with 29 receiving yards in the preseason opener against Detroit. Against Chicago, he led the Bengals in receptions while also contributing in the return game.
Then came the preseason finale against Philadelphia.
Meyers caught three passes for 51 yards on Cincinnati's opening drive before his night was finished. Across the preseason, he finished with 11 receptions on 13 targets for 121 yards, leading the Bengals in both receptions and receiving yards.
He had done everything he could.
The decision belonged to Cincinnati.
The Call
On Sunday, Bengals wide receivers coach Troy Walters FaceTimed Meyers.
The message was the one Meyers had spent years waiting to hear.
He had made the team.
Not the practice squad.
Not another tryout.
Not another opportunity to prove himself somewhere else.
The 53-man roster.
Cincinnati kept Meyers as part of its wide receiver room alongside stars Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins and fellow receivers Andrei Iosivas, Ke'Shawn Williams and Colbie Young.
After learning the news, Meyers called his parents.
Then came the tears.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor said players such as Meyers earned their places by consistently working, producing when opportunities arrived and fitting the culture Cincinnati wanted to build.
For Meyers, it represented something much bigger than surviving roster cuts.
It was validation of every decision that once looked unreasonable.
From Delivering Orders to Catching Passes in the NFL
Professional football produces unlikely stories every season.
Few follow a path quite like this one.
Meyers wasn't a five-star recruit who had NFL scouts tracking him since high school. He wasn't a first-round pick whose professional future seemed predetermined.
He was a zero-star recruit.
He played FCS football.
He transferred to Division II.
He went undrafted.
He trained without knowing whether another opportunity would ever arrive.
He delivered DoorDash and Uber Eats orders to help pay for those workouts.
He paid $100 for the privilege of auditioning for a CFL team.
He battled injuries.
He became a 1,000-yard receiver.
He won a Grey Cup.
And now, at 26 years old, Dohnte Meyers has made an NFL 53-man roster.
There is something almost cinematic about the distance between those late-night deliveries around Atlanta and where Meyers stands today.
But describing his journey simply as a feel-good story would undersell what actually happened.
Meyers didn't stumble into the NFL.
He kept finding ways to remain in football long enough for his ability to become impossible to ignore.
When traditional recruiting didn't provide a path, he found another one.
When the NFL didn't initially call, he kept training.
When the CFL required him to pay for an audition, he paid.
When injuries interrupted his opportunity, he returned.
And when Cincinnati finally opened the door, Meyers walked through it.
For years, Dohnte Meyers was betting on a future almost nobody else could see.
On Sunday, that bet finally paid off.
Dohnte Meyers is an NFL player.