EAGAN, Minn. - Charles Demmings has barely gotten started at Vikings camp, and he’s already making noise in every sense of the word.
The fifth-round cornerback has shown up with playmaking juice on the field and a personality that seems built to light up a practice field. He talks before workouts, chats after them and leaves people around him smiling. That kind of energy can feel like background noise in training camp, but in Demmings’ case, it’s part of the package.
His presence has been impossible to miss through seven practices. Demmings has already broken up a pass for Justin Jefferson and knocked away another throw intended for Tai Felton on Wednesday. When he got his hands on a ball in the red zone this week, the reaction was immediate: teammates pointed, laughed and even wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell cracked a smirk as Demmings held his palm to the ground in a taunt suggesting the receiver was too small.
That sort of swagger fits the way he carries himself every day. Before practice, he heads out to the TCO Performance Center fields and offers the cameras a few words. After conversations, he’ll extend a hand and send off something like: “Keep being a gift to the world.”
It’s not a fake-it-til-you-make-it act. People around him have been seeing this for years. Veteran cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. has already praised him, and former coaches remember meetings where Demmings would spend several minutes laying freestyle bars over beats.
“Relationships are what keep this kid going,” said Marcus Trice, Demmings’ defensive backs coach at John Horn High in Mesquite, Texas. “For him, you have to have a culture that embraces real relationships.”
The football side is catching up to the personality. Demmings’ quickness laterally jumps off the field, and at 6-foot-1 and 193 pounds, he brings a real athletic profile to the position. He was a triple jumper in high school and ran 4.41 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, even while dealing with soreness in his lower body.
But the athleticism only matters if the corner can translate it into actual coverage skill. Demmings has worked to do exactly that.
Trice said his early success at the position came largely from natural ability and feel, but later in college he spent more time studying receiver tendencies and building a stronger understanding of the game. That kind of preparation helped convince the Vikings to send defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander to Nacogdoches, Texas, for Demmings’ pro day before the team used a fifth-round pick on him.
Brian Flores has liked what he’s seen so far.
“Chuck D is a very confident individual,” Flores said. “He’s high energy, (a) great teammate, hard worker.
In drills, you see him working his footwork and hand placement, and he tries to apply those things in the group setting. He’s done a good job so far and (has) continued to improve.”
Minnesota’s cornerback track record adds some weight to Demmings’ arrival. The Vikings took Xavier Rhodes in the first round in 2013, and he became an All-Pro and a shutdown staple. Since then, the list has been much more uneven: Kendall James, Jabari Price, Trae Waynes, Mackensie Alexander, Jack Tocho, Mike Hughes, Kris Boyd, Harrison Hand, Cam Dantzler, Jeff Gladney, Andrew Booth Jr. and Mekhi Blackmon.
Khyree Jackson’s tragic death in the summer of 2024 cut short a promising career far too soon. Against that backdrop, Demmings is giving Minnesota another reason to look ahead.
He said the moment still feels big.
“I am blessed with every breath to be in this position,” Demmings said. “It is literally a privilege.
I’m super excited. I’m astounded.
And I want to give a big shout-out to everyone who supports the Vikings, who is a part of the staff, the facility, the organization.”
With Byron Murphy Jr., Isaiah Rodgers and James Pierre also in the mix, Demmings doesn’t have a clear lane to immediate playing time. Still, he’s already done enough to put himself in the conversation as a depth option. And if camp keeps moving at this pace, he’ll keep bringing the kind of energy that’s hard to ignore.
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