Tulane Football December Transfer Portal Roundup: Linebackers

BY JAKE WEINSTOCK

Welcome to Part 7 of our 10-part series recapping the additions and subtractions to Tulane football's roster, now that the December transfer portal has closed and the spring semester uptown has begun. If you missed our articles breaking down the December signees from the high school class of 2025, or Parts 1-6 of our series, scroll back through our Blog section and check that out. Be on the lookout for the forthcoming installments to this series, as detailed, below:

Part 1: Quarterbacks (released on January 16, 2025)

Part 2: Running Backs (released January 20, 2025)

Part 3: Wide Receivers (released January 23, 2025)

Part 4: Tight Ends (released January 28, 2025)

Part 5: Offensive Line (released February 27, 2025)

Part 6: Defensive Line/Edge/Outside Linebacker (released March 16, 2025)

Part 8: Cornerbacks

Part 9: Safeties

Part 10: Specialists

WHO'S OUT?

One to the portal (1): Mandel Eugene, Jr.

One to graduation (1): Tyler Grubbs

Tyler Grubbs, a graduate of Holy Cross, was quite the find for the 2023 Tulane defense, after transferring back home from Louisiana Tech. Recall that the 2023 team was tasked with replacing both Nick Anderson and Dorian Williams, all at once, and to make matters worse, opening day starter Corey Platt, Jr. suffered a season-ending injury in that 2023 season opener. Grubbs stepped right in and immediately announced his presence on the field, while becoming a respected voice in a locker room that lost many of them following 2022 (Anderson, in particular) and more following 2023 (Michael Pratt, Sincere Haynesworth). Grubbs ended up playing over 600 snaps in each of his two seasons uptown, and while he was not always the most effective coverage linebacker, he was routinely one of the higher graded run defenders by ProFootballFocus. Mandel Eugene, Jr. moves on for his 5th year of eligibility, after filling a depth role for the 2021-2024 Green Wave teams. He played 152 snaps on special teams in 2024, but only 14 on defense.

WHO'S STILL HERE?

Sam Howard, Chris Rodgers, Dickson Agu, Makai Williams, Jean Claude Joseph

While several of the portal acquisitions did not meet expectations in 2024, Sam Howard was undoubtedly a home run for Tulane's scouting staff. After transferring from Austin Peay, the rising senior played 533 snaps, and earned 2nd team All-AAC honors in his first season with the Green Wave. Among players with at least 500 snaps, he was Tulane's 2nd highest graded defender by ProFootballFocus, last season. It's understandable why, especially amidst losing Tyler Grubbs, it was welcomed news that he would be running it back uptown in 2025. Perhaps most notably, on a night when most everything went wrong, he had one of his best games of the season against Memphis, as the Green Wave tried to hang in. Chris Rodgers (a junior) was one of a handful of players (Jack Tchienchou, Caleb Ransaw, Deshaun Batiste, to name a few) who followed Jon Sumrall and Greg Gasparato from Troy to Tulane, following Sumrall's hire in December of 2023. After seeing the field for a total of 181 snaps in 2023 for Troy, Rodgers saw the field on 287 snaps in 2024, for the Wave. He did not start a single game, with Grubbs and Howard being (mostly) healthy for the entirety of the year, but his time certainly could be coming, this fall. By ProFootballFocus he graded out favorably in tackling, run defense, and very favorably in pass rushing, as he turned just 53 pass rushing snaps into 12 pressures (an absurd 22.6% pressure rate, over an admittedly small sample size).

Like Rodgers, Dickson Agu (a junior) is another athletic player coming into his own as he enters his junior season. He did not see the field much in 2023 (19 snaps) but played 344 in 2024, which included a start against Temple. He and Rodgers figure to be the two favorites entering camp to replace Grubbs as the second on-ball linebacker in Tulane's 3-3-5 base defense, that could easily be called a 4-2-5, depending on how one views the "Bandit" position. Against North Texas, while Agu didn't start, he saw his highest snap count of the season (50) and did not waste the opportunity to make an impression, posting his highest run defense and tackling grades of the year, by ProFootballFocus. Makai Williams (a junior), a valued special teams contributor in 2024 could look to get into the mix, as well, after just seeing 38 snaps on defense, last year (that excludes his 244 special teams snaps, of course). Jean Claude Joseph, another junior, will look to prove that he belongs this spring, after seeing the field for 15 snaps in 2024, all on special teams.

WHO'S IN?

Tulane did not add a linebacker from the high school ranks in its 2025 signing class, but they did pick up Dallas Winner-Johnson from the transfer portal, who joins the Green Wave from Missouri State. The 6'5", 230 pound redshirt sophomore was a FCS Freshman All-American in 2024, and the Springfield News Leader wrote, upon his departure "Dallas Winner-Johnson, one of the bright, young stars on the Missouri State football defense in 2024, has signed to play with Tulane." Not a player the locals were hoping to shed from their roster, it seems, and with good reason. He started 10 games for the Bears, including their final 9 contests of the season, and seemed to be more comfortable as the season progressed. He will have his work cut out for him in attempting to crack this Green Wave lineup, but in a worst case scenario, he should be a strong contributor on special teams.

Be on the lookout for Part 8 in our series, the cornerbacks. Roll Wave!