{"id":246887,"date":"2026-04-26T02:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/246887\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T02:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:19:07","slug":"pros-cons-of-jacksonville-jaguars-picking-mtsus-parker-hughes-in-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/246887\/","title":{"rendered":"Pros, cons of Jacksonville Jaguars picking MTSU’s Parker Hughes in 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jacksonville Jaguars selected former MTSU inside linebacker Parker Hughes<\/a> with the 240th pick in the seventh round of the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hughes, a 6-foot-1, 225-pound former Elizabethton standout, had a team-best and career-high 100 tackles (three for loss) for MTSU in 2025, adding two interceptions, two pass breakups and two hurries.<\/p>\n

He finished his MTSU career with 251 tackles (128 solo) after helping lead Elizabethton to two TSSAA BlueCross Bowl state titles in high school, winning the Class 4A Mr. Football<\/a> award his senior season.<\/p>\n

Here are the pros and cons of selecting Hughes in the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Pros<\/p>\n

Blazing speed is the biggest strength Hughes brings to the NFL. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.40 at a recent pro day at MTSU, which would have ranked first among linebackers who attended the NFL Combine (Ohio State’s Sonny Styles topping the combine at 4.46).<\/p>\n

He proved to be a ball hawk while at MTSU with 100 tackles during his senior season, a mark that a Blue Raider linebacker hadn’t reached since 2013. He also had a PFF grade of 80.8 during his senior season.<\/p>\n

Cons<\/p>\n

Hughes’ biggest con entering the draft was his anonymity, although that changed after pro day. RAS Football (Relative Athletic Score) lists his size and composite agility grade as being poor.<\/p>\n

Parker Hughes highlights, NFL draft scouting report<\/p>\n

Hughes shot up the 2026 NFL Draft prospect lists in a hurry after his big senior season at MTSU and performance at pro day. He was ranked among top 25 players in the draft at his position. Hughes was a fierce competitor as a Burlsworth Award finalist, and he will bring that same tenacity to the NFL.<\/p>\n

Hughes has an opportunity to make an impact at the NFL level, possibly sooner than later. His speed\/size combo could end up being more suited for an outside linebacker or safety position.<\/p>\n

Cecil Joyce covers high school sports and MTSU athletics for The Daily News Journal. Contact him at cjoyce@dnj.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @Cecil_Joyce.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Jacksonville Jaguars pick MTSU’s Parker Hughes in 2026 NFL Draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville Jaguars selected former MTSU inside linebacker Parker Hughes with the 240th pick in the seventh round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[108518,45403,116,118,121,117,108515,119,108516,108517,100372],"class_list":{"0":"post-246887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-elizabethton","9":"tag-hughes","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","12":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","13":"tag-jacksonville-news","14":"tag-mtsu","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-parker-hughes","17":"tag-senior-season","18":"tag-sonny-styles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}