#21

Michael Turner Jr.

Mansoor Delane took his first-round grade to the NFL, and behind LSU's two settled starters the cornerback room got young, thin, and slender in a hurry. That is exactly the kind of opening a buried four-star waits three years for. Michael Turner Jr. is one of the names quietly in line for it.

CB · LSU · Fr. · #21

Returning to LSU for 2026

The record

1 tackles · vs SE Louisiana
Week 4, 2025
vs Louisiana Tech
Week 2, 2025

The story

The story in Baton Rouge this offseason isn't Turner — it's the hole around him. With Mansoor Delane gone to the NFL Draft, DJ Pickett and PJ Woodland are the locked-in outside corners, and beat writers covering spring camp were blunt that everything past those two is unproven and undersized. That's the room Turner is competing in. He arrived at LSU as a four-star athlete out of New Orleans powerhouse John Curtis, made the full-time switch to corner under Corey Raymond, and has spent two seasons mostly waiting: 11 career games, 3 tackles, 2 pass breakups, and 38 special-teams snaps as a redshirt freshman in 2025. The 247Sports spring read on the position group called the depth behind the top three 'very unproven' with 'not much physical size' — and at a listed 162 pounds, Turner fits that description as much as he benefits from it. The bet on him is the same bet LSU made when it flipped him to defense: high-ceiling athlete, plus pedigree, Raymond's track record of turning slender corners into pros. The question the boards keep circling back to is whether year three is finally the one where a buried ATH turns into a rotational corner — or whether one of the three incoming freshmen jumps the line first.

Stats from CFBD · ESPN · fan discourse. Every figure computed from source tables — not invented. Methodology