Professional football prospects Zxavian Harris and Dae’Quan Wright find themselves in a precarious position for the 2026 season after the NFL reaffirmed that both players are ineligible to participate in the league. A memo distributed by the NFL Player Personnel Department to front-office executives and head coaches on Wednesday solidified their status, confirming they cannot be signed, visited, or tried out by any NFL club for the remainder of the current campaign.
The league’s decision stems from a policy mandating that players who participate with college teams after the onset of NFL training camps forfeit their professional eligibility for the year. Both Harris and Wright, who spent the summer in NFL camps as undrafted free agents before being waived, attempted to leverage recent court rulings to facilitate a return to the collegiate level. They enrolled at Louisiana State University with the intent of playing for head coach Lane Kiffin.
A Louisiana court had previously issued a ruling permitting the school to field both players despite their professional training camp involvement. Kiffin initially kept two roster spots open for them, leading to a significant confrontation between LSU and the Southeastern Conference. The SEC, which maintains a regulation prohibiting former professional athletes from competing for its member schools, threatened the university with severe sanctions, including potential expulsion from the conference. This standoff eventually concluded when LSU opted to fill those roster positions with different players.
The fallout for Harris and Wright is now absolute. While they had hoped to regain their college eligibility to improve their professional draft standing, the SEC’s firm stance successfully blocked their return to the Tigers. Simultaneously, the NFL’s strict application of its participation rules has effectively closed the door on their professional opportunities for the year. As a result, both players remain stranded, effectively locked out of both collegiate and professional football competition for the duration of 2026. The report also notes that returned to college and participated with their college football team after the opening of NFL training camp, and therefore they are ineligible to visit, tryout with, or be signed by NFL clubs during the 2026 NFL season,” the memo stated, harris and Wright were “eligible for the 2026 NFL Draft. The report also notes that that move set in motion a chaotic sequence of events heading into the season’s second week. The report also notes that LSU eventually filled the roster spots with two other players, defusing the immediate standoff and suspending discussions regarding the conference penalizing out one of its founding members.
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