Duke Shelley

BIOGRAPHY

YaQuis Bertron ""Duke"" Shelley was born on October 8th, 1996, in Tucker, Georgia. He is a cornerback in the National Football League.

2015 Duke Shelley played in each of the final eight regular-season games, starting each contest he became the first K-State true freshman to start at cornerback since 2006, totaled 28 tackles all solo stops with 1.0 tackle for loss, seven pass breakups, and a forced fumble. Duke Shelley had his seven breakups were the most by a Wildcat freshman since Jerametrius Butler in 1998. He had four passes defended against West Virginia, the most nationally by a freshman during the 2015 season and the most by a Wildcat freshman since at least 1990. In 2016 he played in 11 games with 10 starts, totaling 48 tackles, three interceptions and four pass breakups, ranked seventh in the Big 12 in interceptions, while he was fourth in conference-only games as all three picks came against Big 12 foes, he tallied a 29-yard pick-six against Oklahoma State. Duke had an interception the week prior at Iowa State in addition to one at Oklahoma, he set a career-high with nine tackles against Texas Tech, while he had eight at Baylor and seven including a tackle for loss against Florida Atlantic. 2017, Duke Shelley started all 12 of his games played, ranking fourth in the Big 12 with 13 passes defended en route to Honorable Mention All-Big 12 accolades from the leaguees coaches and third-team accolades from Phil Steele. He finished fifth on the team with 56 tackles to go along with 4.0 tackles for loss, a sack, two interceptions, and a forced fumble. He tallied the second pick-six of his career and carded three total passes defended at Texas Tech as he earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week accolades, he recorded a season-high seven tackles at both Texas and Kansas In 2018, Duke Shelley started the first seven games of the year before an injury cut his season, and thus in his career, he was named a Second Team All-Big 12 performer by the league’s coaches and was on the preseason watch list for the Bronko Nagurski Award. He had at least one pass defended in six of his seven games, including a season-high three against both South Dakota and Oklahoma State. Duke Shelley carded two interceptions against the Cowboys to tie for seventh in school history for single-game INTs. He set a season-high with eight tackles in the season opener against South Dakota. Shelley was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the sixth round (205th overall) in the 2019 NFL Draft. Shelley signed a four-year rookie contract with the team on June 20, 2019, worth $2,647,832, including a $127,832 signing bonus. Shelley made his NFL debut on September 5, 2019, in the season opener against the Green Bay Packers.

On September 1, 2023, Shelley signed with the Los Angeles Rams.