D’Wayne Eskridge was done.
When Western Michigan coach Tim Lester came to him after the 2018 season and told him he was moving to cornerback, Eskridge contemplated leaving the school he professed his loyalty to after a hardscrabble recruiting process a few years earlier.
The Broncos secondary was in turmoil that winter, and Lester told Eskridge that a scout from the Kansas City Chiefs suggested the move to defense, saying it would help his draft stock and showcase his versatility.
Eskridge’s first instinct was to transfer, but he was talked into staying over the course of a few heartfelt conversations with his mother, Monique, his uncle, Shawn, and his then-cornerbacks coach James Adams.
“That move was tough cause I felt like that was going to be my true breakout season for a receiver,” Eskridge told the Free Press last week. “I just had that feeling, something that I really couldn’t explain, so I felt like that was a slap to my face when it comes to what I was going to do that year. Honestly, I didn’t want to do it. I thought about transferring, I thought about weighing my options, but I felt like God just sat me back down.”
Because he had not yet graduated, Eskridge would have had to sit out the 2019 season had he transferred to another Division I program or drop down a level and play for an FCS or Division II team.
Both options seemed “treacherous” to the undersized receiver who was just starting to make a name for himself in the Mid-American Conference.
Not wanting to take “two steps back,” Eskridge fought the urge to flee and decided there was something more to the plan.
“I just indulged in being the best corner I could be,” he said. “It was either I argue with the coach about playing strictly offense and not get the ball, or go to defense and become the best corner and the best receiver on the team and just keep on elevating myself instead of just being stagnant and not getting any better at any position.”
Eskridge was Western Michigan’s best cornerback early in that 2019 season, playing primarily on the boundary and contributing in a variety of ways. He made 14 tackles and broke up four passes in parts of four games. He saw spot duty on offense, catching three passes for 73 yards.
And in a weird twist of fate, he broke his collarbone on the third offensive play of Western’s fourth game and was lost for the season.
That injury allowed Eskridge to use a medical redshirt in 2019 and was the catalyst for one of this year’s biggest surges up the draft board.
Eskridge was electric in his return to receiver full-time last fall. He averaged 23.3 yards per catch on 33 receptions (768 yards) in six games. He returned one kick for a touchdown, going 100 yards for a score in a three-point win over Northern Illinois.
And less than a week away from this year’s NFL draft, he projects as a Day 2 draft pick a year after he was told he would go in the seventh round or be undrafted by the NFL’s draft advisory board.
“It’s crazy, really,” Eskridge said. “It’s a lot of things that happened that didn’t go according to plan that were according to plan.”
‘I made so many kids cry’
That, in essence, is the story of Eskridge’s 24 years of life.
The oldest of Monique’s five children, Eskridge spent his early years in Winona, Miss., a “drive-through town” of about 4,200 some 90 minutes north of Jackson.
Eskridge was in kindergarten when his uncle moved to Bluffton, Ind., in search of a more stable life, with a plan to “set a new trajectory” for the family. D’Wayne and his grandmother soon joined Shawn in Indiana, and his mother and younger brother, Decorion, followed.
In Bluffton, Eskridge spent his days outside playing whatever sport was in season. He and Decorion rode bikes down mounds of dirt the city piled up during construction of a new park.
“Probably 90% of the scars on my body came from that hill,” he said.
And every day after school he jogged across town to a now-defunct gym where he honed his forbidden love for boxing. Monique refused to sign the paperwork to let her son participate, but Eskridge said a trainer at the gym saw enough potential in him that he allowed him to take part in sparring sessions.
“I could eat punches, so even if I got hit with something that they would consider to be able to knock me off my feet or something, I was able to kind of take that,” Eskridge said. “And my right hook, when it comes to the body, we were young, like I said, we were like 11 or 13, but I made so many kids cry. Like I’m not going to say a name, but I literally, I remember we sparred, and that was the day he never boxed again. Like literally never saw him again and we went to high school together and everything like that. Never boxed after that day.”
A jitterbug of a running back at Bluffton High, Eskridge was lightly recruited because of academics and likely would have gone the junior college route if not a plan spearheaded by former Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck.
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Eskridge took summer school classes to help his grade point average and started meeting weekly with his guidance counselor. He took the ACT five times and SAT twice, and by the time he graduated high school he was eligible to play as a freshman.
Last year, he became the first person in his family to graduate college, getting a degree in sports management.
“I get so caught up in the process that I don’t really just allow myself to sit down and realize the things that we’ve overcome and the things that we’ve had to overstep,” Eskridge said. “I get caught up so much in the grind about what I need to do for this and that. But once I do allow myself to think about that, it gives me chills cause this is probably the furthest thing from where we come from, the way that we’re doing things, the curses that we’re breaking. So I’m blessed and definitely grateful to be in the position I am to be able to lead and take my family to a different level.”
‘The main thing’
Eskridge already can see a difference between him and his three youngest siblings, sister La’Shyra and brothers Gregory and Antonio, who “actually talk about some of the things that they want to do in life.”
Eskridge said he might want to box once his football days are done, but for now his focus is on the NFL.
At 5 feet 9 and 190 pounds, Eskridge has drawn comparisons to Chiefs playmaker Tyreek Hill, which is ironic considering it was that Kansas City scout who suggested he switch positions.
The Hill comparisons are flattering, but Eskridge said when he watches film he studies a different kind of receiver.
“I look at people that’s really not similar to me,” he said. “Not necessarily slow guys, but slower guys that don’t have explosiveness like (Minnesota Vikings receiver) Adam Thielen. Just how he creates separation when it comes to not having the tools that I have, and I always ask myself, ‘Why does he get open?’ And then I look at my film and I got all of this speed and everything and I ask myself, ‘Why didn’t it work to my advantage?’”
With sub-4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash, Eskridge has plenty of advantages, including, it turns out, that time playing defensive back.
As frustrating as the move to cornerback was, Eskridge now says the 2019 season was the best thing he could have asked for. He learned how to better set up opposing defenders and he learned nuances of the game that he will take with him to the NFL.
“The main thing for me has always been the main thing,” Eskridge said. “I always wanted to go to the NFL, and I didn’t want to just keep on saying that, so I always really worked my butt off to be able to get the things that I have now. I was never handed anything when it comes to anything that I have now. The prize is in the journey, so just keep going.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.