Archbishop Spalding grad Mansoor Delane drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft

Archbishop Spalding’s growing profile as a national high school football power took another big leap forward, Thursday, when former Cavaliers’ defensive back Mansoor Delane, became the No. 6 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Delane, widely regarded as the top cornerback in this year’s draft after a stellar career at Virginia Tech and LSU, expected to hear his name called in the first round and he was selected by none other than a perennial Super Bowl contender, the Kansas City Chiefs.

A 3-star prospect at Spalding, in the Class of 2022, Delane may have been undervalued by college scouts as his career overlapped the COVER-19 era. He played his first three seasons of college football at Virginia Tech earning the following honors:

• 2022 247Sports True Freshman All-American
• 2022 College Football News Freshman All-American Honorable Mention
• 2022 All-ACC Honorable Mention
• 2024 All-ACC Third Team

He transferred to LSU as a senior and was a unanimous All-American selection in 2025. He also was first-team All-SEC and a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award.

Kansas City head coach Andy Reid said Delane has the confidence necessary to thrive as a NFL defensive back.

"You don't want corners that don't have confidence. If somebody's gonna be cocky, you want those guys to be cocky,” said Reid in discussing Delane’s selection. “But he's a confident guy. He believes in himself, but he also has a humble side, which I appreciated. You can get a little bit of that in those Zooms, because we grill them and we're not showing all the good plays when he played. So any of these guys would pull out a couple of their bad ones and show them to him. So we're not there to pump their egos up; some guys handle that good and some don't, but he handled it very upfront. Get a good feel for him on those, so he gave me the same energy."