{"id":728886,"date":"2026-02-04T14:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/728886\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:01:12","slug":"2026-florida-wr-leslie-mosley-jr-signs-with-illini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/728886\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Florida WR Leslie Mosley Jr. signs with Illini"},"content":{"rendered":"

Illinois<\/a> is making another late addition to the Class of 2026. West Palm Beach (Fla.) wide receiver Leslie Mosley Jr.<\/a>\u00a0signed with Illinois on Wednesday following an official visit to Champaign\u00a0last\u00a0weekend.<\/p>\n

Mosley chose Illinois over offers from Liberty<\/a>, Rhode Island<\/a>, Southern Illinois<\/a>, Tennessee State<\/a>, Wagner<\/a>, West Virginia State, Wofford<\/a> and Mississippi Valley State<\/a>.As a senior, Mosley had 52 receptions for 1,001 yards and eight touchdowns to help lead the Crusaders to their first state championships. He also returned 12 kickoffs for 278 yards (23.2 yards) and six punt returns for 158 yards (26.3 yards). He set a program record with 205 receiving yards in a game this season.Mosley plays for Cardinal Newman coach Jack Daniels, who is a very close friend of Illinois head coach Bret Bielema<\/a>. Mosley will be the fourth Cardinal Newman player on the 2026 Illini roster, joining senior DB Xavier Scott<\/a>, redshirt freshman DB Xanai Scott<\/a> and redshirt freshman OL Dylan Frechette<\/a>.Mosley is the fifth wide receiver in the Illini’s Class of 2026, joining Nasir Rankin, Davon Grant, Kenyon Alston and Jacob Harvey.<\/p>\n

Why it matters: Illinois has found success with some of its February signings and is making\u00a0three\u00a0additions on Wednesday: Mosley, Mt. Zion (Ill.) wide receiver Jacob Harvey<\/a> and Byron (Ill.) safety Caden Considine<\/a>, who will enroll in June. Some examples of other\u00a0February additions under Bret Bielema?\u00a0Matthew Bailey<\/a> (2022) has become a two-time All-Big Ten honorable mention selection who will be an NFL Draft prospect entering the 2026 season. Mac Resetich<\/a> (2023) and Tanner Heckel<\/a> (2024) are part of the secondary rotation, and Jack Paris<\/a> (2025) impressed the staff on the scout team this past season.<\/p>\n

How he fits: Mosley will need time to add strength to his thin frame, but he is a legitimate FBS slot receiver prospect. He won’t be an absolute burner in the Big Ten \u2014 his 100-meter personal best is 11.21 seconds \u2014 but he is a sudden route runner with really good speed who can get separation at every level. He really attacks the ball well with his hands and has a good vertical leap to help him win some deep balls, and he does a good job of making defenders miss in the open field with his quick change of direction. His lack of size\/strength will be a hindrance at the Big Ten level for the moment, so he probably won’t be much of a blocker, though he does give effort in that part of the game and showed some physicality as a nickel back on defense. But with development, he can rise into a rotational role eventually, though Nasir Rankin<\/a> will likely be the top option there in 2027 and beyond. Mosley’s best shot to get onto the field early likely will be as a returner. As for a comp, he has a lot of similarities physically to former Illini wideout Carlos Sandy<\/a>, who saw the field early as a returner and cracked the receiver rotation.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illinois is making another late addition to the Class of 2026. West Palm Beach (Fla.) wide receiver Leslie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-728886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116012731562473096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728886","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=728886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}