PRO 2025 Rookie Spotlight: Dont’e Thornton, WR Tennessee
Rookie Spotlight: Dont’e Thornton, Tennessee
Height: 6-5
Weight: 214
Hands:
Arm:
2025 Age: 23 – (11/30/02)
NFL Play-Style Comparison: Matt Landers, Christian Watson
Draft Grade: 6th Round
Projected 40: 4.40
Breakout Age: 22 (Senior)
Event: Shrine Bowl
Offensive Market Share Metrics (Final Season)
Receptions: 11%
Receiving Yards: 23%
Receiving TDs: 29%
High School: Mount St. Joesph HS (Baltimore, Maryland)
As a high school prospect: Class of 2021; 4-star (6.0)
College Attended: Oregon(2), Tennessee(2)
Pros
– Natural catcher of the football
– Explosive abilities on the outside
– Elite: (3.74 yards per route run)
– Sells a route at the LOS with footwork regardless of play
– Willing blocker in the run game
– Playbreaking long speed, long strider
– Led College Football in Yards per Reception (25.5)
– Smooth at the transition point
– Led the SEC in 50+ yard plays (6), tied Jordan Watkins of Ole Miss
Cons
– route running and creation leave a lot to be desired
– Lean for his frame, I don’t trust the 214 pound listing
– 54% of his yards and all 6 of his touchdowns came on targets between the hashes and 10+ yards downfield in 2024
– profiles as a likely “one-trick pony”, that one trick is pretty solid though
– One career game with more than 4 receptions
– Was WR4 on his college team in 2024 in both snap and target share
Highlight/Film
Scouting Notes:
“Potent”, is the word I think of when evaluating Dont’e Thornton. Thornton, a former four-star prospect from Baltimore, Maryland originally committed to Oregon, where he was ranked as the no. 9 wide receiver in the nation according to Rivals. Thornton played in 25 games for the Oregon Ducks, accumulating 541 yards and 26 receptions, after one season under the new coaching staff he decided to enter the portal and travel back east.
Thornton’s abilities portray immense upside that can draw similarities from Christian Watson and Brian Thomas as early rookie breakouts, whose speed saw them smash through the rookie glass ceiling and head north of 600 yards and 5 touchdowns for Watson and 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns for Thomas. I don’t quite see Thornton in the same light, today – he possesses that long speed and willingness across the formation to fight for the extra yard and make a block 20 yards downfield. What he lacks in route running creativity, he makes up for with effort. If he’s willing to put in time on the punt coverage unit, as a rookie, he’ll earn an opportunity to turn the after-burners on in the NFL.
