2026 NFL Scouting Report: Harold Perkins Jr.

Prospect Summary:

Every NFL Draft class has a few players who jump out as physical freaks with extremely rare skill sets. There typically are a few players at their position who are a once-in-a-decade type, and those rare players are always highly desired by NFL teams. Harold Perkins Jr. is a top candidate to be that type of prospect for the 2026 NFL Draft, as he is a physical freak with a special skill set. However, that is based on his 2022 and 2023 tape. In 2024, Perkins only played two games and was quiet. It looked like he was trying to protect himself and was not playing with the same aggressiveness and reckless abandon. Perhaps that was the scheme was calling on him to do, but the injury happened early in the season so he never flashed what made him so special in 2022 and 2023.

Perkins is a game-changer on the football field, capable of taking games over and dominating the competition. He is a heat-seeking missile flying around the field and constantly around the ball. Perkins is extremely, extremely fast. This guy has closing speed that is off the charts, making him a dynamic pursuit player. Perkins eats up ground in a blur and hunts down ball carriers with a rare explosion. To go along with speed, Perkins is a superb athlete with loose hips and is extremely fluid in space.

This skill set combines to make Perkins a dynamic speed rusher off the edge. Perkins has a tremendous first step and explodes off the snap. He will get upfield so quickly that tackles will struggle to get back in their sets to meet him. His athletic ability makes the tackle’s job even harder, as Perkins can really bend and dip low to the ground to turn the corner. Perkins has excellent vision to redirect and has a natural feel as a rusher. While he is undersized, Perkins could be a difference-maker as an edge rusher in the NFL.

LSU utilized Perkins’s superb blitzing ability, but Perkins also showed well in pass coverage. He is natural in space, looking smooth and fluid in coverage to run with receivers downfield. Perkins has the speed and athleticism to be a good coverage linebacker in the NFL. As a sophomore, he showed a lot of progress in dropping into the zone and covering up receivers coming into his area. Perkins will benefit from pro coaching to continue to develop, but the talent is there.

In the ground game, Perkins is tremendous in pursuit, as his instincts are impressive. He reads his keys quickly and has good play recognition. Perkins is superb at flying to the flat and snuffing out perimeter runs. Perkins has a relentless play style and a nasty attitude, leading to him becoming violent with ball carriers. He is a good tackler overall and is always around the ball. As a run defender in the NFL, Perkins is always going to have issues taking on blocks and defending downhill runs coming straight at him. The NFL advance scouts have him listed at 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, which is very undersized for a pro linebacker. Thus, Perkins will need to be used creatively to let him be the dangerous pursuit defender that he can be.

Given his size, NFL defensive coordinators will have to have a plan on how to play Perkins to protect his size limitations and let him do what he does best. He could be a Will linebacker in the base defense that splits time as an edge rusher and coverage linebacker in the subpackage. Perkins is a unique player, and it is tough to find a good comparison to one player in the NFL. From watching his ability and style of play, I see elements of Von Miller, Lavonte David, and Myles Jack.