Defensive end Carl Lawson still has time to carve out a decent NFL career. He’s only 24-years-old after all. However, he’s one player head coach Gus Malzahn wishes he probably could have gotten more out of during his four years at Auburn. Lawson was a five-star recruit coming out of Milton, Georgia. When he picked Auburn, people thought the Tigers were getting their next superstar.
That’s not to say Lawson was a bad player at Auburn by any means, he just never lived up to the hype. As a true freshman on that iconic 2013 team, he played well with four sacks. However, he missed all of his sophomore season in 2014 with a torn ACL and was limited to only seven games as a junior in 2015, registering only one sack during his third college season.
Lawson did have a tremendous 2016 season for the Tigers, as he had 9.5 sacks, earning First-Team All-SEC status, as well as being named a First-Team All-American. After former Auburn defensive coordinator, Will Muschamp took the South Carolina Gamecocks head coaching gig in 2016, we just had a feeling Lawson would pop under new defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.
And that is precisely why Lawson makes this list. Those in the know understood Steele was going to be a transformative coordinator at Auburn. Frankly, he’s a huge reason Malzahn still has a job at Auburn, outside of a huge buyout and the occasional Iron Bowl victory over Alabama. Lawson is entering year four with the Cincinnati Bengals, still waiting to tap into that superstar potential.