Harold Perkins Jr. is a linebacker and 2026 NFL Draft prospect who played his collegiate career at Louisiana State University. A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Perkins was a consensus five-star recruit in the 2022 class, ranked among the top ten players nationally, and chose LSU over a wide array of top programs. He burst onto the national scene as a true freshman, becoming a starter midway through the season and finishing with 72 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, an interception and four forced fumbles to earn First-Team All-SEC and Freshman All-America honors. He remained productive as a sophomore with 75 tackles, 13 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks, earning Second-Team All-SEC recognition, before a torn ACL limited him to just four games in 2024. He returned for his redshirt junior season in 2025 and posted 56 tackles, eight tackles for loss, four sacks and three interceptions across 12 games.
Standing at 6-foot-1 and 223 pounds, Perkins is undersized relative to traditional NFL linebacker standards but possesses rare athleticism including blazing straight-line speed, exceptional hip fluidity and an explosive downhill trigger. LSU used him extensively in a hybrid "star" role in 2025, deploying him as an off-ball linebacker, slot defender and situational edge rusher across his four seasons. He has accumulated pass-rush production from multiple alignments and shows the quickness and burst to threaten quarterbacks as a blitzer. The significant concerns center on his size, inconsistent run defense, tackling reliability and the injury history. He projects best as a hybrid defender in an attacking scheme that can use his athleticism as a matchup weapon rather than a pure off-ball linebacker, and most evaluations slot him as a Day Two to Day Three prospect with boom-or-bust appeal.
