{"id":613998,"date":"2025-12-20T04:42:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T04:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/613998\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T04:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T04:42:14","slug":"star-lsu-football-defender-declares-for-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/613998\/","title":{"rendered":"Star LSU football defender declares for NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As expected, LSU football star cornerback Mansoor Delane has declared for the 2026 NFL Draft. After <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/lsu-football-star-earns-first-132501768.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:earning;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">earning<\/a> unanimous first-team All-American honors and finishing as a finalist for several major defensive awards, Delane will close his college career and head to the next level.<\/p>\n<p>Even though the draft isn\u2019t until April, several top analysts have already ranked Delane among the prospects they\u2019ve scouted and weighed in on where he might be selected come April.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Arguably the most prominent analyst in the space is The Athletic\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dpbrugler\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dane Brugler;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Dane Brugler<\/a>, who ranked Delane 19th on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6794398\/2025\/11\/11\/nfl-draft-2026-rankings-ty-simpson-mendoza\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Top 50 prospects list;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Top 50 prospects list<\/a> from early November. Here\u2019s what he had to say about the LSU star:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Delane ultimately gets dinged at the NFL Scouting Combine because of his lack of elite length and speed, just turn on the tape and watch his sticky coverage for a quick reminder why he deserves to be a first-round pick,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6794398\/2025\/11\/11\/nfl-draft-2026-rankings-ty-simpson-mendoza\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:wrote;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">wrote<\/a> Brugler.<\/p>\n<p>In his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6852455\/2025\/12\/03\/nfl-mock-draft-2026-browns-raiders-dante-moore\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:mock draft;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">mock draft<\/a> published earlier this month, Brugler had Delane selected seven spots ahead of his ranking, with the Miami Dolphins selecting him 12th overall.<\/p>\n<p>The consistent knock on Delane is that teams worry his relatively average athleticism and size will cause him to struggle at the next level. Despite those perceived issues, Delane faced some of the top competition at the college level and didn\u2019t bat an eye. If teams decide they\u2019d rather draft based on testing numbers than tape, it seems likely Delane will make them regret it.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/lsutigerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/lsu\/football\/2025\/12\/19\/lsu-footbal-nfl-draft-mansoor-delane-declares\/87842449007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Star LSU football defender declares for NFL Draft;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Star LSU football defender declares for NFL Draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As expected, LSU football star cornerback Mansoor Delane has declared for the 2026 NFL Draft. After earning unanimous&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4955,1001,52230,7,978,4154,14346,251,6,15,1967],"class_list":{"0":"post-613998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-arkansas","10":"tag-dane-brugler","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-lsu","13":"tag-lsu-football","14":"tag-mansoor-delane","15":"tag-miami-dolphins","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-nfl-draft","18":"tag-nfl-scouting-combine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115750066270972605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}