M.j.
Devonshire.
M.j.
Devonshire.
Pittsburgh· 5'11"· 186 lb· 4.45s 40
"The takeaways were never a fluke, but a 186-pound corner who tackles like a returner has to make somebody's special teams unit first, and four years in that bill still has not come due."Pre-draft read
Boundary corner who took the bulk of his Pitt snaps outside in a press-bail structure. Devonshire's calling card is anticipation rather than recovery speed: he plays off with his eyes on the quarterback, triggers early on hitches and comebacks, and finishes those breaks with his hands instead of settling for a knockdown.
The secondary trait is open-field vision, which is why he doubled as Pitt's punt returner and turned three college picks into touchdowns. Against the run he is willing but slight, shooting low to drag rather than striking. The 4.45 speed is real and the ball production is no accident; the separator is how often a routine completion in front of him became a change of possession.
Zone-heavy defense with quarters and Cover-3 match principles that lets him keep eyes on the quarterback and drive on the throw.
Year 1: fourth or fifth corner and gunner/returner on special teams. Ceiling: zone-scheme boundary starter who lives off takeaways.
Press-man team that asks him to jam and travel with 210-pound X receivers, where his lack of play strength is exposed on every rep.
The scheme has to trade a little discipline for ball production to get his value.
M.J. Devonshire 2022 Regular Season Highlights | Pitt DB
Breakout season reel: the 56-yard pick-six at West Virginia and the 82-yard punt return touchdown.
M.J. Devonshire 2023 Regular Season Highlights | Pitt DB
Second-team All-ACC senior year, showing the off-coverage triggers and hands at the catch point.
Every MJ Devonshire Interception of the 2023 Season
All four 2023 interceptions in sequence — the clearest look at his anticipation from zone shells.
A five-year defensive back who found himself only after leaving Lexington. Devonshire barely registered in two Kentucky seasons, transferred to Pittsburgh in 2021, and by 2022 was one of the ACC's most productive playmaking corners. He is a lean, fluid athlete who wins with timing and route recognition, and he is comfortable playing with vision on the quarterback in zone shells where he can drive downhill on the throw.
The production tells the story: eight interceptions across three Pitt seasons, back-to-back second-team All-ACC nods, a 56-yard pick-six against West Virginia and an 82-yard punt return score in 2022. The flags are just as clear. He is 186 pounds with a narrow frame, he can be moved off his spot by bigger receivers at the catch point, and the same aggression that produces takeaways gets him beaten over the top when he guesses wrong. Tackling was a genuine issue in run fits.
Boards had him as a late Day 3 developmental corner and core special-teams candidate rather than a starter-in-waiting. Las Vegas, working with its second seventh-round selection at 229 after a trade with Minnesota, bet on the ball skills and the return value — the classic seventh-round profile where the special-teams floor, not the coverage ceiling, is what buys the roster spot.
- 01
Ball skills
Eight interceptions and three defensive touchdowns in three Pitt seasons; he attacks the throw with his hands rather than swiping at it, which is why so many breakups became takeaways.
- 02
Route anticipation
Reads route stems and quarterback eyes from off coverage, jumping hitches and comebacks a beat before the ball arrives instead of reacting after the break.
- 03
Long speed
Official 4.45 forty at the 2024 Combine at 5-11, 186; he can carry vertical routes down the boundary and recover a half-step when he opens his hips cleanly.
- 04
Return value
Two-time All-ACC honoree partly on special teams work, with 245 punt-return yards and an 82-yard touchdown in 2022; a genuine fourth-phase contributor.
- 05
Open-field vision
Once the ball is in his hands he sets up blocks and finds creases like a returner, turning routine interceptions into scoring plays on three occasions.
- 01
Play strength
At 186 pounds with a slight frame, bigger boundary receivers can stack him through the route and win the physical catch-point rep against him.
- 02
Tackling
Shoots low and drags rather than striking through contact; misses in run support and gives up yards after the catch on quick game underneath.
- 03
Aggression risk
The same eye discipline that produces takeaways bites him when he guesses; double moves and post-corner combinations have gotten behind him.
- 04
Late bloomer
Two nearly blank Kentucky seasons mean the résumé is only three years deep, and he was already 23 on draft weekend with limited development runway.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.45sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Kentucky | — | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2020 | Kentucky | — | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Pittsburgh | — | 17 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2022 | Pittsburgh | — | 32 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| 2023 | Pittsburgh | — | 32 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 0 |
| Career | — | 50 | 87 | 0 | 8 | 22 | 0 |
Defensive splits per ESPN season logs (2019-2023); totals reconcile exactly (87 tackles, 8 INT, 22 PD). Per-season games left null because ESPN logs only list games with recorded stats; official Packers bio credits 12 games at Kentucky and 38 at Pittsburgh, so career games = 50. TFL not published consistently by season. Also returned punts: 25 for 245 yards and an 82-yard TD in 2022, 20 for 101 yards in 2023.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Ball-hawking college corner whose size and tackling limits kept him bouncing between practice squads.
Undersized, instinct-driven defensive back who out-produced his frame by living in the quarterback's eyes.
Late-round speed-and-special-teams flier who never converted athletic testing into defensive snaps.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He has yet to play an NFL regular-season snap. Las Vegas released him at the 2024 cutdown, brought him back to the practice squad two days later, and carried him there all season before signing him to a futures deal in January 2025. The Raiders cut him again that April; Carolina claimed him on waivers, placed him on injured reserve in late July and released him with an injury settlement days later. Baltimore signed him on Aug. 9, 2025 as cover for an injured Bilhal Kone and waived him at the Aug. 25 deadline. Buffalo added him to its practice squad in December 2025, released and re-signed him inside two weeks, then gave him a futures contract. The Bills waived him in May 2026 and Green Bay claimed him the next day, where he is currently on the roster wearing No. 28.
In hindsight this is a seventh-round pick behaving exactly like a seventh-round pick, only without the special-teams stickiness that usually saves the profile. The college ball production was real and repeatable, but the frame and the tackling that scared evaluators are precisely what has kept him off game-day rosters. He has never been out of the league for long, which says something about the athletic profile and the return background, and at 25 with a fifth organization there is still a path to a helmet. It is just a smaller path than the tape at Pitt suggested.
Data note: Defensive splits per ESPN season logs (2019-2023); totals reconcile exactly (87 tackles, 8 INT, 22 PD). Per-season games left null because ESPN logs only list games with recorded stats; official Packers bio credits 12 games at Kentucky and 38 at Pittsburgh, so career games = 50. TFL not published consistently by season. Also returned punts: 25 for 245 yards and an 82-yard TD in 2022, 20 for 101 yards in 2023.