With NFL rosters largely locked in for the 2026 season, Florida’s reach across the league is easy to spot. The Gators will have more than 40 former players in uniform this year, but that group also includes 10 ex-Florida players who finished their college careers elsewhere and still made it onto NFL rosters.
Some of the names are easy to track. Caleb Douglas, once a receiver Florida never quite unlocked, transferred to Texas Tech and turned himself into a key target before the Miami Dolphins made him a third-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Chris McClellan followed a similar path in a different lane: after starting as one of the crossover players from Dan Mullen to Billy Napier, he left for Missouri and became a third-round selection of the Green Bay Packers in this year’s draft.
Jack Pyburn’s route has been even stranger. After transferring to LSU, he landed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend, only to be waived and claimed by the Kansas City Chiefs. He had a solid training camp and preseason, and Pyburn has said he plans to stay with the Chiefs rather than try to return to LSU.
Donovan McMillon is another former Gator who found his footing somewhere else. He barely saw the field in Gainesville, logging fewer than 100 snaps in both 2021 and 2022, but transferred to Pitt in 2023 and quickly became a productive starter. He went undrafted, stuck with Cleveland last year, played in all 17 games mostly on special teams, and is currently being kept on the Browns’ 53-man roster.
Feleipe Franks is still hanging around too, which says plenty about how far his career has traveled. Florida’s former quarterback lost the job to Kyle Trask after suffering a horrific injury early in 2019, then moved on to Arkansas, where his 2020 season included a 68.1% completion percentage. Now in his fifth NFL season, he has converted to tight end and is beginning to see real snaps at the position with the Carolina Panthers.
Jacoby Brissett remains one of just two former Gators on an active NFL roster at quarterback, alongside Anthony Richardson, with Graham Mertz on injured reserve. Brissett left after the 2012 season, before the transfer portal existed, sat out a year at NC State, and then used strong 2014 and 2015 seasons to get drafted in 2016. He has spent years as a journeyman, but he posted career highs with Arizona last season and enters 2026 as the Cardinals’ expected starter.
Jalen Farmer’s rise came the hard way. A mid-tier three-star recruit who barely played in his two years at Florida, he transferred to Kentucky and became a starter at guard almost immediately. He finished the 2025 season with 818 snaps, then went in the fourth round to the Indianapolis Colts and is set for his rookie year.
James Houston’s path is the most unusual of the bunch. His Florida career began with a suspension tied to his role in a credit card fraud scheme, but he still played close to 600 snaps over the next three years under Dan Mullen.
After transferring to Jackson State before the 2021 season, he exploded for 16.5 sacks and 24.5 tackles for loss that year. Originally a sixth-round pick of the Detroit Lions, he has bounced around since and played 305 snaps for the Cowboys last season.
Trevor Etienne’s transfer from Florida to Georgia was one of the first major signs that Billy Napier’s battleship had a massive crack in it. In his rookie year, Etienne was used mostly as a punt returner, and he is starting the 2026 season on injured reserve but is expected to return later.
Ty’Ron Hopper rounds out the group. He flashed enough in 2021 to make you think there was something to build on, but instead he transferred to Missouri ahead of the 2022 season. Since then, the Packers have used him largely on special teams in his first two years.
In Other News...
Florida Fans May Feel Different About That Lane Kiffin Miss Now
Lane Kiffins name has a way of circling back into Florida conversations, and this time it is tied to more than just coaching nostalgia. LSU and Kiffin are caught up in a legal dispute with the SEC over roster rules involving players taking part in NFL preseason games, while the league is also reportedly weighing ways to limit LSUs scheduling opportunities. For Gators fans who remember how often Kiffin was discussed before Florida went in a different direction in 2021, it is another reminder that his profile has never exactly been ordinary.
A recent Vanity Fair piece also revisited concerns about Kiffins behavior during his Alabama tenure, adding another layer to the reputation that has followed him for years. Florida passed on pursuing him as its head coach in 2021 in part because of those kinds of questions, and the latest round of headlines makes that decision look different in hindsight. Whether that will matter in the long run is another matter, but it is hard to ignore how much baggage has come back into view. [Read more 🡒]
DJ Lagway Was Carrying More Than Florida Fans Realized Last Season
DJ Lagways first season as Floridas quarterback was tougher than the box scores suggested. Ross Dellengers profile puts some of that weight in sharper focus, with comments from Lagways mother and former teammate DeBraun Hampton about the emotional strain and injuries he was dealing with while trying to carry the offense. Even in a year that included a five-interception loss to LSU, Lagway still finished with enough production to show why the Gators leaned on him so heavily.
The bigger picture now is what comes next, because Lagway is expected to open the 2026 season healthy with Baylor. For Florida fans, that makes the story of his 2025 struggles feel less like a postmortem and more like context for how much he was asked to handle behind the scenes. The numbers were uneven, but the season was about more than turnovers and passing totals, and that is the part that may stick with those around the program. [Read more 🡒]
Brad Whites Florida Defense Is Starting To Raise A Big 2026 Question
Brad White has not laid out the full blueprint for Floridas 2026 defense yet, but he has made one thing clear: the Gators are heading toward a multiple-front look built around flexibility in personnel. That alone is enough to spark interest in Gainesville, especially with White bringing a track record from Kentucky that was defined by safe zone coverage and a strong front four, with results that could be uneven when the competition stepped up. For Florida, the appeal is obvious if the scheme can match the roster, and the staff appears to believe this version of the defense will be different for more than one reason.
The bigger question now is how much of Whites old identity follows him to Florida and how much gets left behind. Kentuckys formula fit some opponents well enough, but Floridas coaching staff seems to view this as a chance to build something less rigid and more tailored to the players on hand. If the Gators are going to get where they want on defense, the answer may not just be about fronts and coverage calls, but whether White is willing to lean into a philosophy that looks noticeably unlike the one he used before. [Read more 🡒]