Vikings draft Stephen F. Austin cornerback Charles Demmings, loaded with upside

Charles Demmings was the kind of cornerback Minnesota could bet on late because his ceiling looked bigger than his label. The Vikings took the Stephen F. Austin defender with the No. 163 overall pick, making a small-school prospect with elite burst, real ball production and a late-blooming background into one of the clearest FCS validation stories of the draft.

Demmings did not arrive as a polished blue-chip recruit. He started football in seventh grade, walked away from the game for two years in high school and returned as a senior to play cornerback at John D. Horn High School in Mesquite, Texas. He was a no-star recruit and received only one FCS offer, from Stephen F. Austin and coach Colby Carthel. That path matters because Minnesota was not drafting a finished product. It was drafting traits, growth and a player who kept improving every stop along the way.

At Stephen F. Austin, Demmings turned that opportunity into a résumé strong enough to force NFL attention. Over four active seasons, he produced 53 tackles, nine interceptions, two tackles for loss and 37 passes defensed. SFA says he finished as the program’s all-time leader in pass breakups with 35, and by 2023 he had become a full-time starter after redshirting in 2021. Listed at 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, he gave the Lumberjacks the long, rangy profile NFL defenses still covet on the outside.

The testing numbers explained why the Vikings were comfortable spending a fifth-round pick. Demmings ran a 4.41-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, added a 1.55-second 10-yard split, an 11-foot broad jump and a 42-inch vertical, which ranked second among combine cornerbacks. One combine metric gave him an 88 athleticism score and a 9.97 Relative Athletic Score, a mark that ranked 10th among 2,779 cornerbacks measured from 1987 through 2026. He was also the only FCS defensive back invited to the Senior Bowl, a strong sign that evaluators saw him as more than a developmental flyer.

For Minnesota, the appeal goes beyond measurables. Demmings brings ball-hawking production, special-teams value and a chance to grow into snaps in a secondary that can always use more length and speed. Stephen F. Austin, meanwhile, gained another proof point for the FCS level: Demmings became the school’s seventh draft pick since 2000, its 37th all-time and the first Lumberjack defensive back drafted since Terrance Shaw in 1995. With the Vikings set to bring him into rookie minicamp in early May, the next step is clear. The tools are NFL-level; now the position craft has to catch up.