Count Oregon coach Dan Lanning among those not thrilled with the very recent trend of college players being eligible to return to college after joining the NFL.
Former Ole Miss tight end Dae'Quan Wright made headlines over the weekend by officially entering the NCAA transfer portal after a Louisiana court ruling
gave him a fifth year of NCAA eligibility while he was with an NFL team in the Cleveland Browns.Cleveland waived Wright on Monday, who reportedly agreed over the weekend to join his former Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin at LSU while he was still with Cleveland. That's, y'know, never happened before in NFL history.
Other NFL players, like former Ole Miss defensive lineman Zxavian Harris and former LSU outside linebacker Jack Pyburn, could also
return to college as well despite gaining professional experience as undrafted rookies thanks to the Louisiana court ruling.
Lanning runs one of the most successful college-to-NFL pipelines in the country. He told reporters over the weekend he does not think this new trend of college players returning to school after joining the NFL is a good one.
"I think there's a lot of negatives that are involved around this," Lanning said of the new trend, via SI's Chris Vannini. "Once you go to the NFL, to me, you're in the NFL. You don't get the opportunity to come back."
Lanning also pointed out how this could be unfair to players who were already on a roster to lose their spot to a late-in-the-process transfer who just spent some time in the NFL.
Dan Lanning on NFL rookies coming back to CFB:
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) August 23, 2026
“Most of us have built our rosters … so if you invited somebody back to your team, that means you’re kicking somebody else off your team. I don’t think that’s fair to players who worked all summer, all spring to work for a team." pic.twitter.com/Z60eXtTIyM
This is a truly bizarre recent trend, and you can bet that Lanning probably won't be adding any NFL players to his roster any time soon.
What did Browns coach Todd Monken think of Wright's decision?
He was as confused as most people are.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Oregon's Dan Lanning not a fan of NFL players returning to college football
