Derek Stingley Jr. (born June 20, 2001) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

for the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

and was selected third overall by the Texans in the

2022 NFL Draft The 2022 NFL Draft was the 87th edition of the National Football League's annual draft and was held from April 28–30, 2022, at the Caesars Forum on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The first round was held on Thursday, April 28, and w ...

Early years

Stingley Jr. attended

The Dunham School The Dunham School is an independent, inter-denominational, Christian, college-preparatory, coeducational day school in unincorporated East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. Located in the Oak Hills Place census-designated place, and founded in 1981, ...

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

. During his high school career he had 27 career

interceptions In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

. As a senior, he was named the Louisiana Gatorade Football Player of the Year. Stingley Jr. was rated as a five-star recruit and was ranked as the top overall player in his class by

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

. He committed to

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

(LSU) to play college football.

College career

Stingley Jr. entered his freshman year at LSU in 2019 as a starter, helping the team go undefeated and win the

College Football National Championship A national championship in the highest level of college football in the United States, currently the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is a designation awarded annually by various organizations to their selection of the best co ...

. As a freshman, he led the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) with six interceptions, 21 passes defended and was a first-team All-SEC selection by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

(AP). He was also a consensus All-American, earning first-team honors from the AP,

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

, ''

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'', ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'',

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, and ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

''. In the following season, Stingley missed three games due to illness and injuries, but still was named to the All-SEC first-team. Following an injury plagued junior season in which he was only able to start in three games, Stingley declared for the

College statistics

Professional career

Stingley Jr. was selected in the first round with the third overall pick by the

in the

, tying the record set by

Shawn Springs Shawn Springs (born March 11, 1975) is a former American college and professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons. He played college football for Ohio State University, and earned All- ...

and

Jeff Okudah Jeffrey Chidera Okudah (born February 2, 1999) is an American football cornerback for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ohio State, where he was a unanimous All-American in 2019 before being s ...

for the highest draft selection by a cornerback in NFL history. He entered his rookie season as a starting cornerback opposite

Steven Nelson Steven Nelson (born January 22, 1993) is an American football cornerback for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Oregon State, and was drafted in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft by the K ...

. He had his first career interception in Week 5 against the Jaguars. He finished the season with 43 tackles, five passes defensed and one interception through nine games.

Personal life

His father,

Derek Stingley Sr. Derek Stingley Sr. (born April 9, 1971) is an American football coach. Prior to his coaching career, he had a nine-year playing career in the Arena Football League. Stingley also played college baseball at Triton College and was selected in th ...

, played in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

while his grandfather,

Darryl Stingley Darryl Floyd Stingley (September 18, 1951April 5, 2007) was an American professional football player, a wide receiver whose career was ended at age 26 by an on-field spinal cord injury. He played his entire five-year career with the New England ...

, played with the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

in the

References

External links

Houston Texans bioLSU Tigers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stingley, Derek Jr. 2001 births Living people Players of American football from Baton Rouge, Louisiana American football cornerbacks LSU Tigers football players All-American college football players Houston Texans players