When former LSU WR Malachi Dupre is at his best, he’s making catches like this:
Meet Malachi Dupre, the NFL’s latest underused LSU WR
And don’t be surprised if he makes a big splash.
Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images
And like this:
But we weren’t given as much of a chance to see those heroics because of two big reasons.
The first one: Dupre played with a rare talent at LSU in RB Leonard Fournette.
The second one is that he played at LSU in general.
You know Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry.
They were drafted in the first and second rounds respectively in the 2014 NFL draft and were teammates at LSU. By the end of their third seasons, they were doing this:
You knew they were talented receivers, but in the offense they ran in college, they weren’t able to shine to the best of their abilities, and they didn’t even play with Fournette. That offense under former head coach Les Miles was a big reason why he ended up getting fired. Its reliance on the run game, no matter who was toting the rock, became a crutch, thanks to an inability to find above-average quarterback play.
Here’s what it looks like to be the leading receiver at LSU in the last decade. There is an obvious drop off, coinciding with Fournette’s arrival in Baton Rouge, but the offense wasn’t exactly an air raid system before he got there. Catch totals in the 60s will put a receiver right around No. 50 each year nationally in receptions.
Year | WR | Catches |
|---|
So why do good receivers still go to LSU if they are destined to be underused?
This has less to do with the school’s reputation on the field than you may think. For starters, many of these young men have the egos to believe they’ll be the game-changer who can buck the trend, and that’s not a bad thing.
The other has a lot to do with geography. Louisiana and its surrounding states produce a ton of great athletes.
Dupre was the No. 4 WR in the country coming out of high school. Landry and Beckham were both top-20 WRs as well, with Landry No. 2. All three played high school football in Louisiana. If LSU couldn’t get either to go to Baton Rouge, it would be another issue entirely. More often than not, if you’re good enough, you play high school football in that state, and if the Tigers want you, you go to LSU.
The other thing is, despite a deflated reception number in college, you’re still going to go to the league and get paid, provided you have the skills. Besides Terrence Toliver (currently in the CFL) and Early Doucet, all the other WRs on our list above either just finished or are still in the midst of successful NFL careers. Bowe has been out of the league for a year after an eight-year career that included a Pro Bowl selection, and he led the league in touchdowns back in 2010.
Dupre’s expected to be a mid-round pick in this year’s draft, and he left school early. If he produces in the NFL, he’ll be the latest in a line of Tigers in the NFL who didn’t exactly set the world on fire with receptions in college.
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