Every Player From Last Chance U That Made It To The NFL (So Far)

The shared goal among players at the focus of Last Chance U is to leave junior college (JUCO) football behind for bigger and better opportunities, and there have been several Last Chance U NFL players coming out of the experience. The Netflix docuseries shares the tales of young men trying to make it through football, but only a small number find success. When Last Chance U debuted in 2016, it centered on the renowned East Mississippi Community College Lions. The series centered on the rural school for two seasons before moving to Kansas, specifically, the Independence Community College Pirates.

These athletes faced their fair share of struggles while looking for their “last chance” in the sport. The school also received multiple seasons before the series moved to Laney College in Oakland, California, for the show’s fifth and final season centered on football before the Last Chance U: Basketball spinoff. Several figures have stood out throughout the five seasons, as has their potential. The list of Last Chance U NFL players is impressive, as the show proved their potential for the big leagues.

9 Rejzohn Wright (Season 5)

Carolina Panthers, Las Vegas Raiders, New Orleans Saints

Rejzohn Wright started his collegiate career at Laney College, where he played for two seasons. Wright appeared in Last Chance U during season 5 and after the season ended, he got transfer offers to Oregon State and UCF (University of Central Florida). He chose Oregon State and ended up starting all 13 games for the team in 2021, being named an All-Pac-12 first-team player that season.

However, he finally hit it big when he got a chance to make it in the NFL. On April 29, 2023, Wright signed as a free agent with the Carolina Panthers practice squad, but the team didn’t keep him around, ultimately cutting him in August before the 2023 NFL season started. He got a second chance in October 2023 with the Las Vegas Raiders and joined their practice squad, only lasting one week. He enters 2024 with a reserve/future contract with the New Orleans Saints, giving him another shot.

8 John Franklin III (Season 1)

Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The EMCC quarterback from Last Chance U season 1 transferred to Auburn for the 2016 season before moving on to Florida Atlantic University as a wide receiver the following year and managed to make it to the NFL following the series. Franklin went undrafted in 2018 but signed with the Chicago Bears practice squad before the season started. He lasted one year with the Bears before signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019.

The Bucs added Franklin to the active roster as of the final game of the 2019 NFL season. Franklin remained on the roster, looking to gain playing time alongside multi-time NFL MVP Tom Brady, but injured his leg during training camp. While he didn’t play during the season, he is considered a Super Bowl winner as part of the Bucs. Franklin signed with the USFL’s Tampa Bay Bandits in 2022 and then transferred to the Memphis Showboats. In 2024, Frankin went to Canada and signed with the Edmonton Elks, but they waved him four months later.

7 Allenzae Staggers (Season 1)

Washington Commanders

Allenzae Staggers, a star wide receiver for EMCC, transferred to Southern Miss after his junior year. He had success at that college, with an impressive team-leading 1,165 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. He even saw his name on the Bilentnikoff watch list, an award given to the nation’s top wide receiver. On top of that, Staggers also broke the school’s record for receiving yards in a single game with 292.

This great showing led to the Washington Commanders (then known as the Redskins) inviting him to minicamp to try out for the team’s 2019 NFL season. He was with the team until August 27, as Washington made him one of their late-pre-season cuts before the regular season began. He never joined another franchise, and there is no word of what has happened to Staggers since his short time in the NFL came to an end.

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6 Ronald Ollie (Season 1)

Oakland Raiders

EMCC’s Ronald Ollie, the fan-favorite defensive tackle from the debut season of Last Chance U, is someone audiences were happy to see find success as he left EMCC behind to join Nicholls State. In his Last Chance U season, he was mostly used as comedic relief, and he struggled with his academics, but he found a tutor who helped him turn things around, and it all worked out for him with a college scholarship. He was an All-Southland Honorable Mention as a senior, leading to his next stop.

When his college career ended, Ollie worked out for the New Orleans Saints but went undrafted. Ollie participated in the Oakland Raiders’ 2019 minicamp before being officially signed to the team. Sadly, the Raiders cut Ollie a week into training camp, and he moved on to the Canadian Football League. He played for the Toronto Argonauts, but they cut him before the 2021 season. He has since retired and is now mentoring kids at his own football camps.

5 C.J. Reavis (Season 1)

Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons

C.J. Reavis had big plans to become a star at Virginia Tech when he left high school, but those plans fell apart. Virginia Tech dismissed him after a student conduct hearing, and he had to transfer to EMCC to rehabilitate his career. After his Last Chance U appearance, the EMCC star safety finished his college career at Marshall before signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars as an undrafted free agent ahead of the 2018 season.

Reavis made his regular season NFL debut for the Jaguars in November 2018, marking the first professional appearance for any Last Chance U star. After being waived in 2019, Reavis signed with the Atlanta Falcons but never made it out of their practice squad. He later signed with the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2022, where he currently plays.

4 Chauncey Rivers (Season 2)

Baltimore Ravens, Green Bay Packers

Last Chance U season 2’s defensive lineman had a rough start to his college career. He signed with SEC-powerhouse Georgia in 2015 and played four games as a freshman before the police arrested him for marijuana charges. The team dismissed him, and he moved on to EMCC. After his one Last Chance U season, he signed with Mississippi State and played there for one season. In April 2020, Rivers signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent.

Rivers spent the season on the practice squad and while he was elevated to the active roster for one game, he never played. In 2021, the Green Bay Packers claimed Rivers off waivers and put him on their initial 53-man roster. Rivers finally got to play some NFL snaps, making two tackles, but he tore his ACL and ended up on injured reserve in October 2021. Since his NFL career ended, he moved on to the UFL with the DC Defenders and Birmingham Stallions before heading to Canada in 2024 to play for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

3 Dakota Allen (Season 2)

Los Angeles Rams, Las Vegas Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos

Dakota Allen was a star as a freshman at Texas Tech, leading the team with 87 tackles. However, after police arrested him on burglary charges, the school dismissed him. After losing his opportunity at Texas Tech, what happened to Dakota Allen was that he found his way back to his former school as a linebacker. He proved himself at EMCC on Last Chance U, and Texas Tech gave him a second chance.

The Los Angeles Rams drafted Allen in the seventh round of the 2019 NFL Draft, making him the first drafted Last Chance U NFL player. He bounced from the Rams to the Raiders, making his NFL debut with the latter, and then to the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he played in over a dozen games in the 2020 season, mostly on special teams defense. In 2022, Allen signed with the Cleveland Browns before moving on to the Denver Broncos. He has not played football since 2022.

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2 Jermaine Johnson II (Season 4)

New York Jets

Seasons 3 and 4 of Last Chance U featured Independence Community College’s football team under the controversial Coach Jason Brown. After two years at Independence, defensive lineman Jermaine Johnson II transferred to Georgia, where he played every game for the Bulldogs. Johnson entered the transfer portal and left Georgia for Florida State University, where he led the ACC in sacks and tackles-for-loss during the 2021 season.

In 2022, Johnson became the first Last Chance U player to be selected in the first round of the NFL draft, going 26th overall to the New York Jets. Johnson debuted in the Jets’ opening game and has worked to solidify his spot on their roster. He played in 14 games as a rookie, with 2.5 sacks and 29 tackles. Things got better in his second season when he was named to the Pro Bowl after a season where he had his first interception returned for a touchdown, with 7.5 sacks and 55 tackles.

1 Kuony Deng (Season 4)

Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers

Kuony Deng wasn’t featured much during seasons 3 and 4 of Last Chance U, but he ended up being one of the biggest successes of Brown’s Indy teams and one of the Last Chance U players to get a chance in the NFL. Deng was signed by the Atlanta Falcons in 2022, but they waived him in August before the season started. The outside linebacker then signed with the Chicago Bears as part of their practice squad.

That lasted less than a month before the Bears changed his designation and signed him to a reserve/futures contract. They kept him in that spot until August and then cut him a few weeks before the 2023 NFL season started. The Pittsburgh Steelers signed him one week later and waived him five days after that. Deng has since returned to the college ranks and is a graduate assistant coach for the Oregon State Beavers.

Last Chance U Didn’t Guarantee NFL Stardom

While there were many special cases of Last Chance U NFL players, the series doesn’t guarantee that all the players would make it to football stardom. Isaiah Wright, a running back from season 2, dropped out of Junior College athletics after he was charged with criminal homicide for stabbing 18-year-old Caleb Thomas Radford to death. The player accepted a plea deal and did 11 months of incarceration before moving back home with his family. He currently plays in the semi-pro IAFL league as a running back for the Alcoa Alloys.

Kerry Buckmaster, a center from season 3, stopped playing football entirely. He finished his time in college athletics at West Texas A&M but dropped out of the game in 2019. Coach Jason Brown of seasons 3 and 4 has also found himself in hot water. Jason Brown resigned from Last Chance U after sending offensive texts to one of his German players. He also faced fraud charges for identity theft that were eventually dropped. The coach ended up doing interviews where he was insulting Last Chance U as a show.

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Bobby Bruce, the outside linebacker from the fourth season, was arrested in Florida for cocaine possession after conquering his legal battles chronicled in season 4. Malik Henry, a quarterback from seasons 3 and 4, signed with the University of Nevada in 2019 and eventually threw for 593 yards, got one touchdown, and four interceptions. However, he never went to the NFL and played in the IFL, NAL, and CFL instead. Last Chance U player Dior Walker-Scott, a wide receiver with PTSD who has also suffered homelessness, ended up making Hawaii’s college team.

last chance u

Netflix presents Last Chance U, a sports documentary series that follows different college football campus programs and the student-athletes within, emphasizing the struggles they face balancing school, training, and personal lives. As many of the young men find themselves at a crossroads with only one shot left to make it at the collegiate level, the show centers on the support they receive from their academic advisors while trying to keep up with their coaches’ increasingly insurmountable expectations.

Release Date

July 29, 2016

Seasons

8

Network

Netflix

Directors

Greg Whiteley