Cobie
Durant.
Cobie
Durant.
South Carolina St.· 5'10"· 180 lb· 4.38s 40
"A walk-on with no scholarship offers who left South Carolina State as his conference's defensive player of the year with 12 interceptions, and whose only real question was whether 174 pounds could survive a season."Pre-draft read
Durant is a small, fast, fearless cornerback who plays the ball like a receiver. At barely over 5-9 and under 180 pounds, he still spent most of his college career outside, trailing routes in man coverage and turning to find the throw instead of grabbing.
Speed is the engine: he can carry a vertical release and recover when he guesses wrong, and he closes on the ball from off coverage in a hurry. He is a natural playmaker with the ball in the air, with 12 interceptions and more than 30 breakups at South Carolina State, and he is dangerous once he has it. He also tackles above his weight. The signature is the ball production, which never dipped in four seasons.
A zone-heavy defense that keeps him off the line, lets him read the quarterback and break on throws, while limiting how often he has to win contested balls against bigger receivers.
Year 1: nickel and sub-package corner with immediate ball production. Ceiling: a full-time starting corner who leads a secondary in takeaways.
A heavy press-man defense that asks its corners to jam big receivers at the line and win jump balls in the red zone, where his weight would be exposed on every rep.
Everything about his value depends on being allowed to play the ball rather than the man.
Decobie Durant, CB, South Carolina State | 2022 NFL Draft Prospect Highlights
Official pre-draft reel of his man coverage, ball skills and takeaways.
Decobie Durant Highlights
College cutup covering his interceptions and downhill tackling at South Carolina State.
Decobie Durant 2022 NFL Draft Prospect Profile
Pre-draft breakdown of his traits, FCS context and NFL slot projection.
Durant had no scholarship offers out of Lamar High School in South Carolina. He worked at FedEx, spent a year at Palmetto Prep and walked on at South Carolina State in 2018, where he immediately started seven games and intercepted two passes. He was second-team All-MEAC as a sophomore with 35 tackles, three interceptions and 12 breakups, picked off four passes in the four-game spring 2021 season, then closed with a first-team All-MEAC senior year of 38 tackles, three interceptions and another dozen breakups.
That final season made him the 2021 MEAC Defensive Player of the Year and one of the most decorated HBCU defenders in years, at a school that had produced Darius Leonard and Javon Hargrave.
The evaluation came down to two numbers. He measured 5-9 3/8 and 174 pounds at the East-West Shrine Bowl with 30-inch arms, and he turned 24 during the pre-draft process because of the prep year. Teams saw a slot-only NFL projection with elite ball skills, limited recovery margin against NFL size and no developmental runway. Los Angeles, which had just won a Super Bowl and could afford a specific bet, took him at 142 and put him in the nickel.
- 01
Ball skills
12 interceptions and more than 30 pass breakups in four seasons, with the tracking and hands of a receiver rather than a corner who just knocks throws down.
- 02
Speed and recovery
genuine long speed that lets him carry vertical routes and make up ground when he loses the first step at the line of scrimmage.
- 03
Return threat
dangerous with the ball once he takes it away, a trait that showed up in his interception-return production as a professional immediately.
- 04
Tackling willingness
throws his body into ball carriers despite weighing under 180 pounds, and does not wait for help in the run fit from the slot.
- 05
Mental toughness
a former walk-on with no scholarship offers who started as a freshman and became his conference's defensive player of the year.
- 01
Size
5-9 3/8 and 174 pounds with 30-inch arms at the Shrine Bowl, which removes almost every contested catch from his range against NFL receivers.
- 02
Level of competition
the production came against MEAC quarterbacks and receivers, a real gap from the speed and precision he would face weekly.
- 03
Age
24 during the pre-draft process after a prep year, so teams were buying a finished player rather than a developmental Day 3 project.
- 04
Physicality at the line
can be moved by receivers who get their hands on him in press, and bigger slots can wall him off in the red zone.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.38sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | South Carolina State | 10 | 38 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 2019 | South Carolina State | 11 | 35 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 0 |
| 2020 | South Carolina State | 4 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 |
| 2021 | South Carolina State | 12 | 38 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 0 |
| Career | — | 37 | 119 | 1 | 12 | 32 | 0 |
South Carolina State is an FCS program and is not covered by cfbstats, so games, starts, tackles, interceptions and sacks come from The Football Database's season-by-season FCS ledger, and tackles for loss and pass breakups come from the season summaries published by HERO Sports at the time of the draft. The 2020 line is the abbreviated four-game MEAC season played in the spring of 2021. Tackles for loss in 2018 and forced fumbles and fumble recoveries in every season are left unverified rather than zero-filled because no source publishes them. The four seasons sum exactly to the career totals of 37 games, 30 starts, 119 tackles, 12 interceptions, 32 breakups and one sack.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A small, overlooked corner who turns instincts and takeaways into a legitimate starting role in the right scheme.
The ceiling: an undersized, aggressive corner whose ball skills and instincts make him a long-term starter on a good defense.
The downside: a useful sub-package defender who never fully sheds the size limitations and moves around the league as a rotational piece.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He gave the Rams production almost immediately. As a rookie he played 13 games with one start and intercepted three passes for 151 yards and a touchdown, an absurd 50.3 yards per return. He moved into a larger role in 2023 with nine starts, 39 tackles and six breakups, then became a full-time starter in 2024 with 14 starts, 40 tackles, eight breakups, an interception and a sack, earning NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors in Week 7. His 2025 season was the best of the four: 17 games, 15 starts, 40 tackles, seven breakups and three interceptions including a 50-yard pick six, and he was named Black College Football Pro Player of the Year.
Four seasons in Los Angeles produced 61 games, 39 starts, seven interceptions, two defensive touchdowns and 26 passes defensed for a contending defense. He signed with Dallas in free agency and opened 2026 in their secondary. For a 142nd pick out of an FCS program at 174 pounds, that is a resounding hit. The size concern was legitimate and never fully disappeared, but the ball skills that defined his college tape translated exactly as they looked.