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South Carolina’s Dakereon Joyner lands NFL opportunity

Payton Titus
·2 min read
Sam Wolfe/Special To The State

A South Carolina football fan favorite has landed with an NFL team.

Longtime Gamecock Dakereon Joyner will participate in the Seattle Seahawks’ upcoming rookie minicamp, his agency posted to Instagram. GamecockCentral reported that Joyner also has a minicamp invite from the New Orleans Saints. Joyner was not selected in this year’s seven-round NFL Draft.

Joyner spent six years with USC football and played three positions during that time: quarterback, receiver and running back. Between those swerves on his college football career path and enduring a coaching change between 2020 and 2021, Joyner earned a reputation as one of the program’s most selfless leaders.

In 2021, he stepped in at quarterback after 12 games as a receiver to help lift USC to a 38-21 Duke’s Mayo Bowl win over North Carolina in coach Shane Beamer’s first year at the helm. Joyner completed all nine pass attempts for 160 yards, one touchdown and rushed for 64 yards in the contest.

He ended the 2023 season — his first at running back — with 50 carries for 120 net yards and five touchdowns in 10 games.

Joyner was one of 15 Gamecocks from the 2023 team who participated at USC’s Pro Day in March. He ran the 40-yard dash and caught passes out of the backfield from quarterback Spencer Rattler. Joyner spent the previous 12 weeks training in Atlanta with teammate Ahmarean Brown and said he had spoken with nine different NFL teams during that time.

He played his senior season as a running back, but he could fill other positions as well. He used New Orleans’ Taysom Hill and San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel (also a former Gamecock) as examples. Hill has played both quarterback and tight end for the Saints. Samuel plays wide receiver and running back.

Off the field, Joyner earned a bachelor’s degree in sport and entertainment management and became a father to now-14-month-old daughter Kahlani.

Gamecocks NFL free agent opportunities