Dante Barnett (born February 11, 2003) is an English football defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He joined the NFL in 2025 through the International Player Pathway Program.
Early life.
Barnett is from Birmingham, England, and played a number of sports growing up but took to American football and had successful try-outs at the NFL Academy located at Loughborough University in Leicestershire between 2019 and 2021. After three years at the NFL Academy, Barnett tried making the jump to American college football and received offers from schools in Texas such as Texas Christian University (TCU), Southern Methodist University (SMU), and the University of Houston, but did not have the grades, and instead went to a NCAA Division III school, Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, where he played for a year in 2022. He later became part of the NFL's International Player Pathway.
Career.
During the University of South Florida pro day in March, he was clocked running a 4.69 40-yard dash. In April 2025, he signed for Cincinnati Bengals as an undrafted free agent.
Personal life.
His father died when he was young. He previously worked at a Jaguar-Land Rover plant. He is of Jamaican descent.