Kewan Lacy out for the season due to injury: What's next for the Ole Miss star RB?

Lacy's injury-riddled season has negatively impacted his NFL Draft stock, but is that enough to warrant a return to college football in 2027?

Nov 12, 2026 at 1:36 pm ET • 3 min read

In an unsurprising turn, Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy will miss the rest of the 2026 season due to injury. Lacy has been dinged up all season, and he's been limited in most of the games he's played.

Lacy hasn't played since the Rebels' loss to Texas on Oct. 24, and he finishes with just 388 yards and five touchdowns in six games. Coming into the season, expectations were high for Lacy following a monster 2025 campaign, but his inability to remain healthy derailed him almost immediately.

Last season, Lacy was a breakout star for the Rebels. He led the country with 306 attempts, and he made the most of those opportunities with 1,567 yards and 24 touchdowns. Lacy also made an impact in the passing game with 29 catches for 177 yards, and his explosiveness was apparent every game.

Lacy's absence and ineffectiveness have led to a big drop for the Rebels' rushing attack -- slipping from 176.3 yards per game last year to 147.3 yards per game in 2026.

Looking ahead, Lacy will have a big decision to make in the offseason. He should be one of the top NFL Draft prospects at running back, but he has the talent to be the first running back off the board. Would one more college season, in which he gashes defense while fully healthy, help him fly up draft boards? Would that even be worth the risk?

Lacy's big offseason decision

As a true sophomore last year, Lacy wasn't able to enter the NFL Draft, but that might have been as high as his stock could be.

Now? That stock has taken a massive tumble. In his latest three-round NFL mock draft for CBS Sports, Mike Renner projected Lacy as the No. 59 overall pick to the Minnesota Vikings. If Lacy feels like he could raise his draft stock -- while making something comparable to second-round money -- he might be open to staying in college.

In the wake of Lacy's injury, Renner noted that Lacy is "not even close to first-round" after his disastrous 2026 season. Plus, NFL teams have questions about Lacy's size (5-foot-11 and 205 pounds) and health.

It's also fair to wonder whether NFL teams have once again cooled on first-round running backs more broadly. The last five drafts have only featured first-round running backs three times, and the last two classes were particularly bad.

• 2026: Jeremiyah Love -- No. 4 overall
• 2026: Jadarian Price -- No. 32 overall
• 2025: Ashton Jeanty -- No. 6 overall
• 2025: Omarion Hampton -- No. 22 overall
• 2023: Bijan Robinson -- No. 8 overall
• 2023: Jahmyr Gibbs -- No. 12 overall

The last four first-round running backs have been massive disappointments to this point, so the question is whether teams view Lacy in the same tier as Robinson and Gibbs, two true superstars at the position. Based on Renner's insight, it doesn't sound like that's the case.

Whether Lacy would return to Ole Miss or look for more money and a change of scenery in the transfer portal is another question entirely, but the NFL Draft clearly isn't a foregone conclusion. That said, another season at the college level isn't a slam dunk either.

We've already seen what injuries have done to Lacy's stock this fall. What if he comes back and gets injured again in 2027? Then he's probably looking at a late-round NFL Draft projection, which would be a cataclysmic fall from where his stock was entering the 2026 season. Is it worth the risk for Lacy just to move 20-30 picks up the board? At least he could get a multi-year contract at the NFL level.

There is no clear path forward for Lacy, and the pre-draft process will be critical in helping him make a final decision.