One of the ACC's most disruptive freshmen in 2025 — 6.5 sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss as a first-year defender, FSU's top-defensive-freshman award, and a portal market that graded him a top-10 asset when tampering season came calling. Desir carries a 6-4, 265-pound frame that projects inside or on the edge, and the production came against P4 tackles, not layups. The high school arc (12 sacks in his senior year at Norland) says the rush instincts are native, not schemed. But this is one season of college football from a true sophomore, and 30 total tackles betrays a rush-specialist snap profile — the run-down workload and the other half of his game must catch up, as his own program has said publicly. He cannot declare until the 2028 draft at the earliest, and the projection currently sits at 2029. The grade is proven floor with a genuinely draftable trajectory; the next two seasons decide how much higher it climbs.

• Sports Illustrated Nov 18, 2025

  Florida State's Mandrell Desir emerging as important piece of defensive front - Sports Illustrated