Ryan
Flournoy.
Ryan
Flournoy.
SE Missouri St.
"Three schools, two divisions and a junior college later, the only question left on him was whether elite ball-tracking and a 39.5-inch vertical could survive against people who actually get their hands on him."Pre-draft read
Flournoy is a 6-1, 202-pound outside receiver who lined up mostly as the X at Southeast Missouri State but was moved everywhere — flanker, slot, even the backfield — to get him the ball. His signature is ball-tracking: he locates the deep throw early, adjusts late, and snaps 10-inch hands to anything near his frame, contact or not.
The athletic profile backs it up — a 4.44 forty, a 39.5-inch vertical and an 11-foot broad jump — and he threatens the sideline as a straight-line strider rather than a sudden separator. Where he wins is the drive phase of vertical routes and the space after a slant or crosser; where he stalls is the top of intermediate breaks. The separating trait is his calm on downfield throws outside his frame.
Vertical, play-action offenses that ask a receiver to win on the outside third and finish contested throws — the Dallas scheme built around Lamb's underneath volume and Pickens's boundary work leaves Flournoy exactly the deep and intermediate looks he is best at.
Year 1: fourth or fifth receiver who plays vertical packages and core special teams while the release package develops. Ceiling: a legitimate 60-catch WR2/WR3 in a play-action offense who takes the top off coverage and finishes in the red zone.
A timing-and-option West Coast offense that lives on precise breaks at 8 to 12 yards and asks receivers to defeat press man on every snap — that is the exact rep where his hand usage and short-area quickness fail him.
He needs volume of vertical targets, not volume of routes; his value is per-catch explosiveness, and offenses that use him as a possession chain-mover waste what makes him different.
Ryan Flournoy Southeast Missouri State Highlights
The FCS tape that got him drafted: vertical stems, contested finishes and the ball-tracking that was his best trait.
Why Ryan Flournoy is the Best Kept Secret in the 2024 NFL Draft
Pre-draft breakdown of the athletic profile and the press-coverage concerns that pushed him to the sixth round.
Cowboys WR Ryan Flournoy ALL CATCHES In Breakout Game — 2025 Week 5 vs. Jets
Six catches for 114 yards at the Jets: the game the traits finally showed up on Sundays.
An older, self-made receiver whose football identity was built almost entirely on speed, hands and want-to. Unrated out of Homewood-Flossmoor, he started at Division II Central Missouri, detoured through Iowa Western Community College, and only found a real stage at an FCS program at age 22 — so what teams evaluated in 2024 was a finished athlete and an unfinished technician.
At Southeast Missouri State he was immediately the best player on the field: 61 catches for 984 yards and seven touchdowns in 2022 with first-team All-OVC honors, then 57 for 839 and six scores in 2023 despite a broken hand that cost him two games, earning all-conference again. He answered the level-of-competition question in person, producing against Kansas State and Iowa State, then confirmed the athleticism at the Senior Bowl and the Combine. The flags were consistent: he does not use his hands against press, his short-area change of direction is average, and his route tree was narrow enough that scouts could not project separation against NFL corners.
The board filed him as a day-three upside swing — an FCS deep threat with tools, not a plug-and-play contributor. Dallas took him 216th as a developmental Z with special-teams value behind CeeDee Lamb.
- 01
Ball-tracking
Finds and adjusts to the deep ball as well as anyone in the class, with 10-inch hands that snap to throws well outside his frame.
- 02
Vertical explosion
A 39.5-inch vertical and 11-foot broad jump show up on tape as a real leaping radius on jump balls and back-shoulder throws.
- 03
Long speed
Runs 4.44 and eats cushion as a smooth strider, forcing defensive backs to open their hips early on every vertical stem.
- 04
YAC juice
Explosive after the catch on slants and crossers; breaks arm tackles and turns manufactured touches into chunk gains.
- 05
Production against a jump in level
Answered the FCS question against Kansas State and Iowa State, then confirmed it at the Senior Bowl and Combine.
- 01
Press release
Almost no hand usage at the line of scrimmage; physical corners can reroute him and take away the timing of the concept.
- 02
Short-area quickness
Average change of direction and fluidity at the top of intermediate breaks; he declined the agility drills at the Combine.
- 03
Route tree
Won mostly on simple vertical and YAC concepts in college, so the intermediate and option-route portions of the job were projection.
- 04
Age and blocking
Turned 24 as a rookie with limited runway, and his perimeter blocking was inconsistent for a receiver built to do it.
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Southeast Missouri State | 12 | 61 | 984 | 7 |
| 2023 | Southeast Missouri State | 10 | 57 | 839 | 6 |
| Career | — | 22 | 118 | 1823 | 13 |
Table covers only his NCAA Division I seasons at Southeast Missouri State, where the two listed years sum exactly to the published 118-catch, 1,823-yard, 13-touchdown career line. Before that he redshirted at Division II Central Missouri in 2018, caught 17 passes for 170 yards there in 2019, and posted 32 catches for 545 yards and five touchdowns at Iowa Western Community College in 2021; those games and touchdown splits are not fully published, so they are excluded from the career totals rather than estimated. He also returned four kicks for 87 yards and a touchdown in 2022.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
The likeliest version and close to what he already is: a long-limbed WR3 who lives on deep shots and red-zone targets, produces 40 to 50 catches a year, and stays employed for a decade.
The ceiling: an undervalued small-school speed receiver who turns vertical explosiveness and special-teams value into a real starting job and a free-agent payday.
The floor and a Cowboys cautionary tale: a big, fast day-three receiver who survives six years on special teams while never clearing double-digit catches in a season.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Year one was mostly the special-teams and depth role the pick implied: 11 games, 10 catches for 102 yards, no touchdowns. Then the 2025 preseason nearly ended it — Dallas waived him on August 28, exposed him to waivers, and re-signed him to the practice squad on August 30. He was elevated for the opener as a special-teamer, signed back to the 53 in Week 2, and by midseason he was the Cowboys' No. 3 receiver behind CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. He finished 2025 with 16 games, 40 catches for 475 yards and four touchdowns, including two 100-yard games — a six-catch, 114-yard afternoon at the Jets and a career-best nine catches for 115 yards and a score against Detroit. He entered 2026 camp in Oxnard installed as the WR3 from day one.
This is the sixth-round outcome teams are actually buying when they draft traits. The press-coverage and route-tree concerns were real and cost him a full season of development, but the ball-tracking and speed were exactly as advertised, and the leap came the moment the reps did. Dallas nearly lost him for nothing on waivers; instead they have a cheap, ascending third receiver on a rookie deal.
Data note: Table covers only his NCAA Division I seasons at Southeast Missouri State, where the two listed years sum exactly to the published 118-catch, 1,823-yard, 13-touchdown career line. Before that he redshirted at Division II Central Missouri in 2018, caught 17 passes for 170 yards there in 2019, and posted 32 catches for 545 yards and five touchdowns at Iowa Western Community College in 2021; those games and touchdown splits are not fully published, so they are excluded from the career totals rather than estimated. He also returned four kicks for 87 yards and a touchdown in 2022.