Devin
Duvernay.
Devin
Duvernay.
Texas· 5'10"· 200 lb· 4.39s 40
"A 210-pound state sprint champion who caught 106 passes from the slot in one season, and the whole question was whether that was a receiver profile or a return-man profile."Pre-draft read
Duvernay is a 5-11, 210-pound slot receiver built like a running back with legitimate track speed, a former Texas state sprint champion who ran 4.39 at the combine. He wins on slants, crossers and screens, and the yards after catch are violent rather than shifty: he lowers his pads and runs through arm tackles.
The second trait is reliability on the volume routes. He caught 106 passes as a senior working almost exclusively inside, with a flat catch-and-go that turns three-yard throws into first downs. The tree is limited and he does not separate at the stem, so the projection leans on speed and returns. The signature is the manufactured touch: jet sweep, tunnel screen, shallow cross, ball in his hands moving forward.
A motion-heavy offense that manufactures touches with jet sweeps, tunnel screens and shallow crossers, paired with a full-time return role on both kickoffs and punts.
Year 1 return specialist and third receiver on manufactured touches, with a ceiling as a 70-catch starting slot in a quick-game offense.
A route-precision West Coast scheme that lives on option routes and timing breaks, where his lack of stem nuance leaves him covered.
Texas WR Devin Duvernay 2019 Season Highlights
The 106-catch senior season that turned him into a Day 2 pick.
Devin Duvernay Week 14 Game Film vs Texas Tech 2019
Full-game film from his biggest outing, the cleanest look at the slot usage.
Texas WR Devin Duvernay Highlights
Career reel showing the speed and the run-through-contact style after the catch.
Duvernay is from Sachse, Texas, a twin whose brother Donovan played on the same Longhorns team, and he arrived in Austin as a sprinter who had run 10.29 in the 100 meters. He contributed immediately as a freshman in 2016 with 20 catches for 412 yards and three touchdowns at 20.6 yards a reception, then almost disappeared as a sophomore with nine catches through a quarterback carousel.
The junior year moved him into the slot full time and produced 41 catches for 546 yards, and the senior year was an explosion. Moved inside permanently, he caught 106 passes for 1,386 yards and nine touchdowns in thirteen games, added ten carries, and finished as a first-team All-Big 12 selection and a Biletnikoff semifinalist. His 176 career catches for 2,468 yards put him among the most productive receivers in Texas history, and the volume came without the drops that usually follow that kind of target load.
The evaluation was a speed slot with a running back's build and a return background. He measured under six feet with 30.5-inch arms, and the tree he ran was narrow, so the debate was whether he was a starting slot or a gadget-and-special-teams piece. Baltimore, an offense built on jet motion and manufactured touches, took him at 92 to be exactly that.
- 01
Track speed
A 4.39 forty backed by a 10.29 100-meter time in high school, real vertical juice that stresses a defense from the slot.
- 02
Yards after catch by force
Runs through arm tackles at 210 pounds rather than dancing, converting short throws into first downs.
- 03
Elite volume production
106 catches for 1,386 yards as a senior with the target load of a true number-one option.
- 04
Dependable hands
Caught 129 targets in his final year without the concentration drops that usually accompany that usage.
- 05
Return-game value
Explosive with the ball in space on kickoffs and punts, an immediate special-teams contributor from day one.
- 01
Narrow route tree
Slants, crossers and screens made up most of his usage, with little evidence on comebacks, corners or option routes.
- 02
Limited separation technique
Wins with speed rather than stem detail, and press-savvy nickels can reroute him at the line.
- 03
Short and short-armed
Under six feet with 30.5-inch arms, so contested catches outside the numbers are not part of the profile.
- 04
One-year sample of volume
Three seasons of modest production before the senior surge raised questions about whether the scheme made the numbers.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.39sp50
- Vertical
- 35.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 123inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.13sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.20sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Texas | 11 | 20 | 412 | 3 |
| 2017 | Texas | 13 | 9 | 124 | 0 |
| 2018 | Texas | 14 | 41 | 546 | 4 |
| 2019 | Texas | 13 | 106 | 1386 | 9 |
| Career | — | 51 | 176 | 2468 | 16 |
Season lines come from Sports-Reference with bowl games included and sum exactly to the 176-catch, 2,468-yard, 16-receiving-touchdown career totals confirmed by StatMuse, whose 17-touchdown figure adds his lone rushing score. CFBTrack lists lower game counts for 2016 and 2017 and splits bowl production into separate rows, so its totals are not used here. Return yardage was not reported consistently by these sources and is omitted rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
An All-Pro return weapon whose offensive role stays situational and manufactured throughout his career.
The ceiling: a returner with real speed who grows into a genuine starting receiver and a long, productive offensive career.
Slot-and-returner whose value lives entirely on special teams and who bounces between rosters year to year.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Baltimore used him exactly as expected. He returned kicks and punts immediately and added 20 catches as a rookie, then broke out on special teams in 2021: first-team All-Pro as a return specialist and a Pro Bowl selection. He made the Pro Bowl again in 2022 while posting his best offensive year, 37 catches for 407 yards and three touchdowns with 84 more on the ground, before a back injury cut the season short and shrank his 2023 role to four catches.
He signed with Jacksonville in 2024, played thirteen games as a returner, spent 2025 in Chicago handling 40 kickoffs, and joined Arizona on a one-year deal in March 2026. Through 91 games he has 107 catches for 1,003 yards and five touchdowns, 3,231 kickoff-return yards with two touchdowns, and 1,284 punt-return yards. In hindsight the pick returned exactly what the third round should: a two-time Pro Bowler and an All-Pro, just on the third phase rather than as a starting receiver. The narrow route tree that scouts flagged is the reason the offensive role never grew.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2020 NFL draft player selections table.