NFL Tells Teams Harris, Wright Can't Sign in 2026 After LSU Return Attempt
The NFL has reminded teams that Zxavian Harris and Dae'Quan Wright are ineligible to sign with any club in 2026, after both players attempted to return to college and play for LSU. ESPN reported the league's notice.
That's the record: one confirming source, no team named, no position or program detail attached to either name. The operative part is clear anyway. Any club holding an undrafted-free-agent slot, a futures contract, or a practice-squad opening for Harris or Wright can stop. The bar is on signing, which is the mechanism behind every route into the league.
A memo like this is compliance work, not commentary. It lands on personnel staffs that spend the months before a season stacking boards. The outcome every front office wants to avoid is signing a player, announcing it, and then having the league flag his eligibility. A reminder kills that possibility before it costs a team a roster spot and a news cycle.
What the reminder doesn't do is explain the decision that put both players here. Returning to college after a draft-eligible path is a one-way bet, and it's the kind of call where the guidance a player gets matters as much as what he does on the field. This version produced the worst outcome available: no LSU football, and no NFL contract for 2026.
My read is that this is final for the cycle. The league didn't issue a clarification. It issued an instruction to its clubs, which is the language it uses when the decision is already made. If Harris or Wright plays in the NFL, it won't be in 2026, and it won't happen because some team decided to test the paperwork.
