Christian
Holmes.
Christian
Holmes.
Oklahoma St.
"A sixth-year, 6-1 press corner whose stiff three-cone matched the doubts: two seasons of Washington special teams value, a fourth-quarter muffed punt recovery, and then three years without a defensive snap."Pre-draft read
A long, physical press corner at 6-1 and 201 pounds who spent six years in college and finally put it together as a sixth-year senior at Oklahoma State. He plays with his hands at the line, stays in phase down the sideline and tackles like a safety, which is how he stacked 39 tackles and seven breakups in his final season.
The athletic profile is good but not special: 4.54 in the forty with a 39-inch vertical and a 7.25 three-cone. That three-cone is the tell. He is a long-strider who covers ground once he opens up but struggles to redirect against quick releases and option routes underneath. Teams liked the frame, the physicality and the special teams profile more than the change of direction.
A press-heavy Cover-3 defense that lets him jam at the line and turn and run, rather than asking him to mirror in off coverage.
Year 1: core special teams and fifth corner. Ceiling: a boundary starter in a zone-match defense against big receivers.
A heavy off-man scheme that asks him to open his hips against quick slot separators, where his three-cone stiffness shows immediately.
His most valuable NFL snaps were on punt coverage, which is the honest read on the projection.
Christian Holmes, Oklahoma State 2021-22 highlights
His All-Big 12 senior season as a press corner in Stillwater.
Christian Holmes complete rookie highlights
Every 2022 defensive and special teams snap of note.
Commanders draft CB Christian Holmes and OG Chris Paul
The seventh-round selection and the scouting case behind it.
Holmes was born in Leland, Mississippi and played cornerback and wide receiver at McNair High School in Atlanta before committing to Missouri. He played sparingly as a true freshman in 2016, appearing in nine games with a single tackle, then redshirted the 2017 season after a shoulder injury in a preseason scrimmage.
He emerged in 2018 with his best college production: 36 tackles, two interceptions for 42 yards with a touchdown, and 12 passes defensed in 13 games. His 2019 season was quieter, 29 tackles and four breakups in 12 games, and he transferred to Oklahoma State for his final two years of eligibility.
In Stillwater he played all 11 games in 2020 with two late starts, 24 tackles and six breakups. The 2021 season was the one that got him drafted: 14 games, 13 starts including the Big 12 Championship Game, 39 tackles, an interception and seven pass breakups on a defense that finished among the best in the country. He was named second-team All-Big 12 by the Associated Press and earned All-Big 12 Academic honors. At his pro day he measured 6-0 and 201 pounds and ran 4.54 with a 39-inch vertical and a 10-6 broad jump.
- 01
Prototype length
at 6-1 and 205 pounds he has the frame teams want when they ask a corner to jam receivers at the line.
- 02
Willing, reliable tackler in run support
126 career college tackles from the cornerback position is unusual volume.
- 03
Sixth-year experience
five playing seasons across the SEC and the Big 12 against a wide range of receiver types.
- 04
Ball skills in his peak season
12 pass breakups and a 42-yard pick-six at Missouri in 2018 showed real playmaking upside.
- 05
Late improvement
second-team All-Big 12 as a senior plus academic honors, evidence he kept getting better in a long career.
- 01
Stiff change of direction
a 7.25 three-cone is a red flag for a corner who will see NFL option routes every snap.
- 02
Age
he turned 25 during his rookie season, which erases the developmental runway most seventh-round picks get.
- 03
Inconsistent production
his best statistical season came in 2018, and he never recaptured that ball production afterward.
- 04
Grabby in trail position
the habit draws flags because NFL officials call downfield contact tighter than college crews do.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Missouri | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2018 | Missouri | 13 | 36 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 0 |
| 2019 | Missouri | 12 | 29 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 2020 | Oklahoma State | 11 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 2021 | Oklahoma State | 14 | 39 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| Career | — | 59 | 129 | 0 | 3 | 30 | 0 |
Season lines follow Sports-Reference's college database, which counts bowl games. The Football Database credits him with 12 games and 33 tackles in 2018 rather than 13 and 36; the difference is bowl-game accounting and is left visible here rather than averaged away.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Washington depth corner whose roster value came almost entirely from special teams.
Long, physical corner who stuck in the league by winning with size instead of quickness.
Late-round Washington corner who lost his job by year three and never found another.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Washington took him 240th and he made the roster as a special teams corner. He appeared in all 17 games as a rookie in 2022 with two starts and 12 tackles, and his signature moment came in Week 6 against Chicago, when he recovered a muffed punt by Velus Jones Jr. at the Bears six-yard line in the fourth quarter, setting up the only touchdown of a 12-7 win. In 2023 his role shrank to 13 appearances, no starts and eight tackles.
The career stalled from there. The Giants claimed him off waivers on August 5, 2024 but he never appeared in a regular-season game for them, and the Browns signed him on August 11, 2025 without his playing a snap for Cleveland either. His NFL totals stand at 30 games, two starts, 20 tackles, one pass defensed and two fumble recoveries, all of it produced in two seasons in Washington. He is the standard seventh-round outcome: two years of special teams value, then the roster math stops working.