LSU Football Draft Eligible Tigers: Malachi Dupre

Following a lackluster career with LSU football, Malachi Dupre has decided to skip his senior season to see if he can find greener pastures at the professional level.

Like many of today’s high school recruits, there was a great deal of fanfare that came with the signing of Malachi Dupre in 2014. He was a local kid who rated out tops at his position that year. And along with another phenom signee in Leonard Fournette, Tiger fans were expecting Coach Miles to turn LSU into a major dynasty.

Unfortunately for Dupre, that amazing 2014 signing class did not have a quarterback to go with it. The failure by the coaching staff to recruit and develop an adequate signal caller an put him under center greatly hurt the growth of Malachi at wide receiver.

During his freshman campaign, he gave the people of Baton Rouge a hint of just what he was capable of doing. Dupre finished that season with 5 touchdowns on just 14 receptions. He also ended his shortened season with a healthy 20-plus yards per catch average.

However, that potential was never afforded a chance to grow, as he finished his career with no more than 43 receptions – and fewer than 700 yards in the two seasons that followed.

Malachi might have stuck around for his senior season to improve his draft stock for 2018, but then the Citrus Bowl happened. Coming off of a season where he only had one 5 reception game, and one 100 yard receiving game, the bowl game was synonymous with a stat sheet stuffer.

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Dupre would finish the game with 7 receptions for 139 yards; including 6 grabs for 136 yards in the 1st half. This gave the fanbase, as well as the rest of the football landscape, a taste of why he was the #1 rated wide receiver coming out of high school in 2014.

Listed at 6’4″ 195 lbs. Dupre has 1st round size, but his stats suggest his a second day pick.  As the draft approaches, he may start to garner comparison to former LSU wideouts in Brandon LaFell and Jarvis Landry.

Possible landing spots for Dupre in the 2017 NFL Draft include San Francisco, Tennessee, Los Angeles (Rams), Buffalo, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.