The 2026 NFL Draft has come and gone, and with it went six more former Tigers who heard their names called over Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
Friday night, the second day of the draft, was a bit quieter than most expected from an LSU perspective. AJ Haulcy was the second Tiger selected and waited nearly 70 picks after Mansoor Delane was drafted sixth overall by Kansas City. Haulcy ended up going in the third round, 78th overall, to the Indianapolis Colts. Not long after that we saw Zavion Thomas
go to the Chicago Bears with the 89th overall selection.
Day Three of the Draft, Saturday, was more interesting because of who hadn’t yet heard their names called. The Las Vegas Raiders stayed the course and took Fernando Mendoza first overall, and the Los Angeles Rams surprised many by taking Ty Simpson with the 13th overall selection. A lot of people assumed Garrett Nussmeier would be the next quarterback off the board, instead Nussmeier fell all the way down to the seventh round, pick 249, to Kansas City.
I can’t explain Nussmeier’s fall. ESPN’s Mel Kiper and Louis Riddick were also perplexed. Somehow, someway Nussmeier, who came into 2025 as maybe a top-10 overall pick, ended up being the 10th quarterback off the board. The silver lining is Nuss gets to go to a great organization in Kansas City, learn from Andy Reid, and could possibly earn some playing time while Patrick Mahomes rehabs from a torn ACL suffered in December.
In between the Thomas and Nussmeier selections, three other Tigers heard their names called in the sixth and seventh rounds. Bauer Sharp was first off the board, going to Tampa Bay with the 185th overall selection. The New Orleans Saints actually picked an LSU guy, and selected Barion Brown with the 190th overall selection; and Harold Perkins might have grown up a Saints fan, but now he’s an Atlanta Falcon, getting picked in the seventh round, No. 215 overall.
