Dashawn Spears

Dashawn Spears has been taking the ball away his whole career. He changed his last name from McBryde to honor his stepfather, and at Denham Springs in Louisiana he intercepted 10 passes as a junior and nine more with three defensive touchdowns as a senior, earning first-team all-state honors in each of his final two years before signing with LSU as a four-star and top-100 national recruit. He appeared in all 13 games as a true freshman in 2024 with three starts and 24 tackles, and his role stayed rotational into 2025, but the splash plays came anyway. Against Florida he intercepted two passes and returned one 58 yards for a score, a performance that earned SEC Defensive Player of the Week. He finished the year with 19 tackles, three for loss, a sack and two interceptions before drawing his first career start in the Texas Bowl against Houston, where he posted a career-high tackle total. The traits are the story: rare timed speed at 208 pounds with 75-inch length, range to carry the deep middle, and the burst to undercut routes from depth. He drives downhill and finishes with reliable tackling, charged with only one miss, and he held up over the slot and in the box as well as deep. The caveat is volume. He played a rotation role on only 255 snaps, so the body of work is far smaller than a full-time starter's, his ball production beyond the Florida game was quiet, and his man reps against NFL-caliber tight ends are still developing.