Senior Josie TeSlaa said her brother Isaac\u2019s developing pro career has been a dream come true for both him and the entire TeSlaa family.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt every game I find myself tearing up from how proud I am of him and to be his sister,\u201d Josie TeSlaa said. \u201cI just know he is going to have a successful career not only from his raw talent, but because of his work ethic and integrity in every area of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
TeSlaa played wide receiver for the Hillsdale Chargers for three seasons, from 2020\u20132022, before transferring to the University of Arkansas for two more seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the 2025 NFL draft, the Detroit Lions gave away two future third round picks as part of a trade<\/a> to draft TeSlaa at No. 70 overall \u2014 a decision criticized as risky by many football analysts<\/a> at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the preseason, TeSlaa snagged a touchdown in all three games and finished with 10 catches for 146 receiving yards. Every catch but one resulted in a first down or a touchdown. Thanks to TeSlaa\u2019s performance, the Lions traded away veteran receiver Tim Patrick<\/a> to make room for TeSlaa on the final team roster.<\/p>\n TeSlaa initially attracted major attention in the first week of the regular season with a one-handed touchdown grab<\/a> in garbage time during a loss to the Green Bay Packers. The touchdown, which was also TeSlaa\u2019s first regular season reception, went viral on social media.<\/p>\n The very next week, TeSlaa made another internet splash in a blowout win over the Chicago Bears with another astounding one-handed catch for 29 yards, this time just shy of the end zone.<\/p>\n Dave Portnoy, the founder of media company Barstool Sports, posted afterward on social media<\/a>: \u201cSo this TeSlaa dude is just gonna have the catch of the year every week. Who the hell is this guy?\u201d His post currently has nearly 2 million views.<\/p>\n Lions quarterback Jared Goff said on a sports podcast<\/a> that TeSlaa\u2019s first catches have \u201cgot to be the best first two catches in NFL history,\u201d and that \u201cthe sky\u2019s the limit for that kid.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite TeSlaa\u2019s eye-catching start to the season in his first two games, his involvement with the Lions\u2019 offense was kept to a minimum for the next nine weeks \u2014 with an average of fewer than one target per game<\/a> \u2014 not unusual for an NFL team with more experienced receivers facing a competitive season.\u00a0<\/p>\n When fellow wide receiver Kalif Raymond went down with an injury in late November, TeSlaa\u2019s role with the offense increased, and he posted back-to-back games with multiple receptions and a touchdown apiece, starting with a close Thanksgiving Day loss to the Packers.<\/p>\n TeSlaa\u2019s most productive game of the season came in a hotly-contested loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Dec. 21. TeSlaa finished the game with 52 receiving yards and a touchdown that came in the second quarter on a 20-yard pass. But a penalty on him also negated a potential go-ahead score.\u00a0<\/p>\n The following week, TeSlaa caught three passes for 49 yards and another touchdown in a loss that saw the Lions eliminated from postseason contention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Courtesy: Detroit Lions Former Hillsdale College football player Isaac TeSlaa turned heads on the Lions, in the NFL,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,2506,7,842,147,6,98685],"class_list":["post-676931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-lions","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-lions","tag-detroitlions","tag-football","tag-isaac-teslaa","tag-lions","tag-nfl","tag-sports-feature"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115894298335058556","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676931","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=676931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}