Todd McShay breaks down Deontae Lawson as NFL prospect

AlabamaLB Deontae Lawson has taken steps forward over each of his four seasons in Tuscaloosa. Now, entering year five and his final one of eligibility, Lawson is projected as one of the top linebackers in next spring’s draft class by Todd McShay at The Ringer.

In a recent episode of ‘The McShay Show’, McShay previewed several of the best defenders for the 2026 NFL Draft, including at linebacker with Lawson alongside Texas’Anthony Hill Jr.. That featured a breakdown of what his collegiate career has looked like to this point, with some injury concerns coming out of his last two seasons, with the Crimson Tide.

“He’s a fourth-year player coming up in this season, okay. Played mostly special teams in 11 games in 2022. Took over the starting mike job, the middle linebacker job in 2023,” said McShay. “Missed three games that year – this is not a good pattern – due to injury, and two this past year suffering the torn ACL.”

“He’s got 20 starts the past two seasons, and he’s been productive, man,” said McShay. “143 tackles, 12 for loss, five sacks, eight pass breakups, and one forced fumble.”

As noted by McShay, Lawson has become a starting, leading defender at linebacker the past two years at ‘Bama. On their defense, he has been second in each of the past two seasons in tackles and been top-five in tackles for loss, sacks, and deflections while also coming out of last year with his first interception, forced fumble, and fumble recovery of his career as a redshirt junior.

That has Lawson, ahead of his final year as a redshirt senior, already honored as part of preseason watchlists for The Butkus Award, given to the nation’s top linebacker that season, The Nagurski Trophy, given to the country’s top defender, and The Lott IMPACT Trophy. He was also selected to the Preseason All-SEC Second Team.

That said, McShay, who projected him as a first-round pick back in May, did again note the injury issues the past two years for Lawson. He’ll need to be healthy this fall, for his team and as far as his own personal draft stock goes, with an ankle injury late in 2023 and then that torn ACL late in 2024, which he has since returned from the past week and a half with Alabama having started fall camp in preparation for ’25.

“I’ll reiterate,” McShay stated. “Like, so much of this is predicated on full recovery, staying healthy, all those sorts of things.”

Lawson injury update: DeBoer updates recovery timeline on Alabama LB

After suffering a devastating knee injury in Alabama‘s penultimate game last year, Deontae Lawson opted to make use of his extra COVID year to come back in 2025. Now, eight months removed from that season-ending setback versus Oklahoma, the veteran linebacker is back at practice, albeit with a large knee brace, for the Crimson Tide.

Kalen DeBoer addressed Lawson’s status at the opening of fall camp back on July 30th. He revealed that the returning team captain will remain limited at least as far as the number of reps he’ll receives in camp going into this season, but that his trajectory is “going up”.

“His trajectory is going up. Deontae? His leadership is the thing that’s really come out. So that’s exciting,” DeBoer said. “He’s going to be limited, just the number of reps, the volume I guess is the best way to put it, and what he can take as expected. And that was going to be the plan just with his timeline from the beginning.”

“But it was great just having him out there. I think he feels really good about being out there,” said DeBoer. “Mentally and physically, I think he’s in a really good spot. But there’s still progress to be made as we build toward the first game.”