Mesidor is projected as a first-round pick in the NFL draft, slated for April 23-25. Daniel Jeremiah, NFL Network\u2019s draft guru, has Mesidor ranked 18th in his first top-50 prospects list and over his opening two mock drafts has Mesidor going 17th overall to Detroit and No. 20 to Dallas.<\/p>\n
The six-foot-three, 265-pound Mesidor enjoyed a stellar 2025 season at Miami, registering 60 tackles (36 solo, 15.5 for loss) with 10.5 sacks and four forced fumbles. He had three tackles (two solo) and two sacks in the Hurricanes 27-21 NCAA championship loss to Indiana.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old was an All-ACC first-team selection. He played his first two collegiate seasons at West Virginia, starting 52-of-65 career games and recording 205 tackles (121 solo, 50.5 for loss) with 33.5 sacks.<\/p>\n
Mesidor has no doubts he can effectively rush NFL quarterbacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve proven it all season long and it doesn\u2019t just stop there,\u201d Mesidor said. \u201cI will continue to grow, continue to get better and work on my craft.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to hit the ground running.\u201d<\/p>\n
This draft class is somewhat older that most, with some top prospects being 24. Mesidor will be 25 once the regular season begins in September.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah, who has personnel\/scouting experience with the Baltimore Ravens (2003-06), Cleveland Browns (2007-08) and Philadelphia Eagles (2010-12), doesn\u2019t see that being a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, if it\u2019s close between players and you have a 20-year-old and a 25-year-old, obviously you\u2019re going to take the 20-year-old,\u201d Jeremiah said in Indianapolis. \u201cBut teams aren\u2019t as concerned with age that I\u2019ve talked to going through this process.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times, the running joke is, \u2018Oh, the (player\u2019s) second contract.\u2019 Well, the GM is worried about his second contract so let\u2019s try to get four or five good years out of this player. If he gives us that and we move on, it\u2019s a good pick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mesidor feels his age is an advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see myself as a professional the way I work, the way I take care of my body, the way I eat, sleep, train, all these different things that make you a really good football player,\u201d he said. \u201cI take pride in the process and love the game, studying, all of these different things that maybe a young guy hasn\u2019t fully understood yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 24 and fully understand I\u2019m going to continue to learn and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mesidor said he\u2019s living proof Canadians can not only play U.S. football but excel. However, he quickly praised the path blazed by fellow Ottawa natives Jonathan Sutherland (Penn State defensive back, CFL\u2019s Montreal Alouettes), Luiji Vilain (Michigan and Wake Forest defensive lineman, NFL stops with Minnesota, Carolina, Cleveland and Dallas), Patrice Rene (Rutgers and North Carolina defensive back, currently with CFL\u2019s B.C. Lions) and Jesse Luketa (Penn State linebacker, NFL stints with Arizona Cardinals and now L.A. Rams).<\/p>\n
\u201cThey paved the path for younger guys like me to come and be in this position,\u201d Mesidor said. \u201cI want to do the same thing for all of the younger guys who want to come up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to do everything I can to put Ottawa on the map, let alone Canada, and help the younger generation achieve their dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mesidor\u2019s message to young Canadian players is a simple one.<\/p>\n
\u201cBelieve in yourself, leave no doubt,\u201d he said. \u201cGrowing up in Canada you always hear about the big, bad Americans, that\u2019s all you ever hear but, honestly, football is football.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways have confidence, continue to work and don\u2019t let anybody tell you that you can\u2019t come to the States and compete with anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mesidor is projected as a first-round pick in the NFL draft, slated for April 23-25. Daniel Jeremiah, NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-501884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}