Colts Host SFA Cornerback Charles Demmings for Pre-Draft Visit

The Colts traded two first-round picks and a starting wide receiver to put Sauce Gardner in their secondary. Gardner played four games.

That investment, buried by a calf injury, frames exactly why Indianapolis hosted Stephen F. Austin cornerback Charles Demmings for a pre-draft visit, part of GM Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen's ongoing prospect evaluations ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft. Demmings arrived not as a desperation depth option but as one of the most athletically verified cornerbacks in this entire class, regardless of subdivision.

At the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine, held in Indianapolis, Demmings posted a 4.41-second 40-yard dash, a 42-inch vertical jump (tied second among all cornerbacks), and an 11-foot broad jump (also tied second among corners), producing an athleticism score of 88, first among every cornerback at the event. His Relative Athletic Score of 9.97 ranks 10th among 2,779 cornerbacks evaluated from 1987 through 2026, a number that requires no subdivision qualifier to command attention. He was one of only five FCS players invited to the combine.

The Colts' interest follows a specific logic. Beyond Gardner's four-game cameo, Charvarius Ward Sr. was limited to seven games by multiple concussions and has been weighing retirement, while Jaylon Jones missed most of training camp and part of the regular season. Indianapolis signed Cam Taylor-Britt in free agency and has second-year corner Justin Walley, returning from a torn ACL, in the fold, but Ballard publicly flagged depth as a non-negotiable need after the injury-marred year. Scouts describe Demmings' best fit as a scheme that lets him press and play tight man coverage on the outside, precisely the complementary profile a team would want around a centerpiece corner like Gardner.

The price tag would reflect his draft position, not his athleticism. Analysts project Demmings as a third-day pick in rounds four through seven, which for a cornerback who spent his entire career in the FCS is the realistic ceiling, and reaching it is genuinely rare. The 2024 and 2025 NFL Drafts each produced eight to eleven FCS picks in total across all positions; pure FCS cornerbacks, those who never transferred to the FBS level, are fortunate to account for even one selection in a given class. The closest recent blueprint is Bilhal Kone, who started at FCS Indiana State at the same 6-1, 190-pound frame before moving to Western Michigan and going to the Baltimore Ravens in the sixth round of the 2025 draft. Demmings produced at a higher level and never left Nacogdoches.

His SFA career line: 42 games, 63 tackles, nine interceptions, and 35 passes defended, the last number a Stephen F. Austin program record. In his 2025 All-American season, he added four interceptions and five pass breakups to 18 tackles. He left Mesquite Horn High School in Texas as a zero-star recruit, his only offers coming from West Texas A&M, Pittsburg State, and UT-Permian Basin. He became the first SFA player ever invited to the Senior Bowl, where he flashed his athleticism but also surrendered a touchdown to 6-7 tight end Tanner Koziol on a size mismatch, a reminder of the physical adjustment that comes with facing NFL-caliber competition. The combine erased most of those doubts.

"I want everybody to see that I'm no different from the players who wear an SEC helmet," Demmings told The Draft Network ahead of the Senior Bowl. "I can match the level of talent of cornerbacks who are in those NFL facilities as we speak."

He is now in those facilities. Five organizations have hosted Demmings for official pre-draft visits: Indianapolis alongside the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, and Miami Dolphins. Each team can formally visit a limited pool of prospects; that five franchises have dedicated a slot to an FCS corner signals consensus across scouting departments. If any of them select him, Demmings becomes the first SFA defensive back drafted since cornerback Terrance Shaw in 1995, a 31-year gap that his combine numbers and his growing visit list have compressed to a live question of round and pick number.