LSU’s defensive line lineage is exceptional.
Chad Lavalais and Kyle Williams ushered in the championship era. Glenn Dorsey elevated it on the next title team. Michael Brockers and Bennie Logan helped win the SEC before combining to play 17 years in the NFL. Tyler Shelvin was probably the most underrated performer on the 2019 team.
Elite play up front changes defenses.
LSU’s last two defensive tackle draft picks in the first two rounds have been Maason Smith (2024) and Ego Ferguson (2014). Both were second round picks, and they were 10 years apart. The last defensive tackle taken in the first round was Brockers in 2012.
Alabama and Georgia have churned out defensive linemen as part of their historic championship-level runs. LSU would do well to mirror that, but it’s obviously far easier said than done.
This season, LSU is replacing Bernard Gooden, Jacobian Guillory, Ahmad Breaux and Walter Mathis up front. They took a ton of snaps alongside Dominick McKinley who is back. Some power conference transfers and true freshmen are going make up the unit.
WHO’S BACK: Dominick McKinley (Jr.), Shone Washington (Sr.), Brandon Brown (RFr)
WHO’S NEW: Stephiylan Green (Transfer- Clemson), Malik Blocton (Transfer- Auburn), Achilles Woods (Transfer- South Alabama), Richard Anderson (Freshman), Deuce Geralds (Freshman)
WHAT WE KNOW
McKinley has played a lot of college football, 23 games with a pair of starts. He’s made a total of 19 tackles with four sacks and a pass break up. Pro Football Focus graded him a 69.5 against the run and a 59.2 in pass rush. His overall defensive grade was a 64.1.
Shone Washington only played 54 defensive snaps as a fourth-year college player last season. Brandon Brown only played 16.
Objectively, that’s a small amount of playing time and production. In comes the new crop.
Malic Blocton is 6-foot-3 and 287 pounds. He made 10 starts at Auburn including the final eight games last year. For the season, the former prep basketball player made 19 tackles including 4.5 tackles for loss and half a sack. PFF graded him a 64.5 for the season on defense.
Stephiylan Green played three seasons at Clemson. He’ll be on the other sideline for the opener. After a redshirt year, he eventually emerged as a starter in year three. Last season, he made six starts, five tackles for loss and recorded three sacks. He stands 6-foot-3 and is a shade under 300 pounds.
Achilles Woods spent two seasons at South Alabama and didn’t play a ton. As a redshirt freshman, he played in 12 games with a season-high of 25 snaps.
Brandon Brown played 16 snaps over two games after coming in as a three-star recruit. He’s 6-foot-1 and 287 pounds.
Then you’ve got the freshmen.
Deuce Geralds comes in from the state of Georgia where he was a four-star recruit. He’s 6-foot-1 and 279 pounds which makes him the smallest of this bunch. However, he’s Georgia’s all time prep sack leader and was working with the first team much of spring ball.
Richard Anderson is not the smallest of the bunch. He’s 6-foot-3 and 339 pounds. 247sports called him the top defensive line prospect in the nation and a five-star recruit. As a senior, he had 10 sacks and 22 tackles for loss from the defensive interior. That earned him 5-A Most Outstanding Player honors on the defensive side.
HUNT’S TAKE
The best players in this position group might be the freshmen.
On one hand, that’s exciting. On the other, it’s terrifying. Life is tough for rookies on the defensive line. In an era of handsomely paid 23-year-year old college players, asking a 19-year-old to match up physically is tough.
McKinley, Blocton and Green are the experienced players. Stats don’t tell the whole story, especially with defensive line play, but those three haven’t been nearly all-conference players as second and third year guys.
I just have a hard time projecting them to be anything close to the names I listed at the top of the story. They’re not bad players. They’ve started games for LSU, Clemson and Auburn. That makes you a quality player. Dominant? No.
Perhaps it’s because the canvas is blank and not covered in underwhelming statistics, but I think the two freshmen here could be stars. Geralds is going to play early and often against Clemson. Anderson is a mountain of a man with ridiculous athleticism. Maybe it takes them a year to reach that level. The list of dominant defensive linemen who reached that level as a freshman is short.
Of all the places on the roster, this is the one I have the most questions about. There is a proven all-conference player at every level of this team except the defensive tackle spot. That doesn’t mean there is no talent. It just means it might be unproven.
LSU finished eighth in the league stopping the run last year (yards per carry). Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M made the College Football Playoff with worse numbers. Oklahoma and Georgia got there by finishing in the top five in the country. So was Indiana.
That, to me, is a crucial part of football. I’m not completely convinced LSU will be great in this spot in 2026. I can be easily convinced LSU is on the verge of something special with the younger players, though.
