Austin Deculus (born March 12, 1999) 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 ...

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

for the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

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 ...

Early years

Deculus was born in Mamou, Louisiana, but grew up in

Cypress, Texas Cypress is an unincorporated community in Harris County, Texas, United States, located completely inside the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City of Houston. The Cypress area is located along U.S. Highway 290 (Northwest Freeway) is twenty-fo ...

, where he attended Cy-Fair High School. He was highly regarded as an offensive line prospect coming out of high school, being ranked the No. 5 offensive tackle prospect by

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 ...

College career

In his freshman season at LSU in 2017, Deculus played in all 13 games on

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

, appearing only twice on the offensive line due to injuries to the team's starters. In the second week of his sophomore season in 2018, Deculus had his first start at left tackle in a game against Southeastern Louisiana. He shifted to right tackle the following week and started there for the remainder of the season. He finished the year with a total of 827 snaps played, including all 86 snaps in the

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...

. Deculus was considered the "most improved" offensive lineman at LSU in 2019 and started 13 games, missing two due to injury. He played every snap in the Tigers'

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

win over Clemson, totaling 885 snaps over the whole season. Deculus started all ten games at right tackle in 2020, and was named to the 2020

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 ...

Academic Honor Roll. Deculus took advantage of an extra year of eligibility due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic as he entered his fifth year playing for the Tigers. In 12 games in 2021, he played a total of 829 snaps, and recorded his only

tackle in a game against

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Professional football career

Houston Texans

Deculus was selected in the sixth round of 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 ...

by 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 ...

with the 205th pick overall. The Texans had previously selected his LSU teammate

Derek Stingley Jr. Derek Stingley Jr. (born June 20, 2001) is an American football cornerback for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at LSU and was selected third overall by the Texans in the 2022 NFL Draft. Early ...

in the first round of the draft. On August 29, 2023, Deculus was waived by the Texans and re-signed to the practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster on September 30. He was waived on November 11.

New York Jets

On November 13, 2023, Deculus was claimed off waivers by the

References

External links

Houston Texans bio

LSU Tigers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deculus, Austin 1999 births Living people American football offensive linemen Houston Texans players LSU Tigers football players New York Jets players People from Cypress, Texas Players of American football from Harris County, Texas People from Mamou, Louisiana