Lane Kiffin could pull off his boldest move yet at LSU

Lane Kiffin just can’t stop raiding his old team.

The LSU coach spent last offseason talking his way out of a College Football Playoff run in Oxford and right into Baton Rouge.

Now he might be about to pull a familiar trick and pull a piece of his old Ole Miss offense with him.

Tight end Dae’Quan Wright is set to get cut by the Cleveland Browns, according to all media reports.

If no other NFL team scoops him up off waivers, he’s got a deal waiting for him back in college football. That deal points straight to LSU.

There are some folks at Ole Miss holding out hope he could be eligible to come back but even they don’t sound like they have convinced themselves yet.

Wright spent last season lighting things up for Kiffin’s Ole Miss offense. He hauled in 39 catches for 635 yards and five touchdowns before going undrafted this spring.

He signed with Cleveland and got some preseason snaps before things took a turn.

Browns coach Todd Monken didn’t sound thrilled when reporters asked him about it this week. He said Wright had dealt with a medical issue that kept him off the practice field.

Monken admitted he didn’t see the move coming until Kiffin reached out to him a week before it happened.

Wright is one of several fifth-year players who won a temporary restraining order in a Louisiana court this year. That ruling lets them chase one more season of college eligibility.

LSU already used that same ruling to land edge rusher Junior Tuihalamaka earlier this year.

Wright brings something Tigers don’t already have

Tuihalamaka never signed an NFL contract so his path back to college looked simpler. Wright’s situation is different since he already suited up for Cleveland.

That makes him the first player in this group trying to jump straight from an NFL roster back onto a college field.

If the move goes through Wright would step into a tight end room that already has plenty of buzz around Trey’Dez Green.

Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. have talked all offseason about lining Green up everywhere from the slot to out wide. Wright and Green look nothing alike on the field which makes it easy to picture both getting real playing time.

The Kiffin-Weis system also likes using multiple tight ends at once. That gives Wright a real shot at carving out a role even with Green already penciled in as a focal point.

Players like Malachi Thomas and Zach Grace could see their opportunities shift a bit depending on how the coaches sort out the room.

Building chemistry fast won’t be easy

Quarterback Sam Leavitt and Wright won’t have long to click on the field since there’s hardly any offseason left before kickoff.

Still, Wright already knows this offense inside and out from his time in Oxford. That kind of familiarity can make up for a lot of lost practice reps.

Nothing is official yet. Wright has to clear waivers first and that process won’t wrap up for another day.

SEC policy won’t let a player switch conference schools within the same year yet no rule addresses someone bouncing from an NFL roster straight into college ball.

LSU would essentially be the test case for how that gets handled.

This all comes together during a busy stretch for LSU with Clemson looming in two weeks and reinforcements possibly still coming aboard.

It also stirs up extra storylines for LSU’s SEC opener in Oxford where Wright might line up against the very program that once called him its own.

Key takeaways

• Dae’Quan Wright has a deal in place to join LSU if he clears NFL waivers from the Browns
• Wright already has chemistry with Kiffin’s system from his 2025 season at Ole Miss
• The move sets up a loaded storyline for LSU’s SEC opener trip to Oxford