Darrell Akeem Luter Jr. (born April 24, 2000) 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 wit ...

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 turnove ...

for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

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 ma ...

(NFL). He played college football at

South Alabama South Alabama is the various parts of southern Alabama. Although it is not a strictly defined geographic region, it generally includes all Alabama counties south of the Black Belt. In that view, ''South Alabama'' consists of just the two counties ...

Early life

Luter was born on April 24, 2000, in

Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County (where it is the county seat and largest city) and extending west into Lamar County. The city population was 45,989 at the 2010 census, with the populat ...

. He attended Oak Grove High School and played football for three years,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

for two years and

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the short ...

for one year. Despite many of his teammates being highly recruited (including six who signed with

FBS FBS may refer to: People * Frederik Batti Sorring, known as FBS, Indonesian politician Schools * Faith Baptist School (disambiguation) * France Business School, in France * Friern Barnet School, in London * Friends Boys' School, one of two ...

teams), Luter was not, and eventually committed to

Pearl River Community College Pearl River Community College is a public community college in Poplarville, Mississippi. It was founded as Pearl River County Agricultural High School in 1909 and became the first junior college in Mississippi in 1921. Residents of Hancock, ...

College career

Luter played at Pearl River from 2018 to 2019, being named second-team all-conference as a

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educati ...

247Sports 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on athletic recruitment in college football and basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount. The website hosts a large network of team-specific subsites, with each subsite ...

ranked him a three-star junior college recruit and among the top 40

s nationally, and after graduating from the school he signed with

. He appeared in all 11 games in his first year with the team, and although he was for most of the season third-string on the depth chart, Luter was able to tie for the team lead in

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football ** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking up ...

among players at cornerback. Luter had a breakout year in 2021, placing third in the FBS in

pass breakups In American football, a pass deflected, also known as a pass deflection, a pass defended, a pass , a pass knockdown, or a pass breakup, is an incomplete pass that is caused by a defensive player. This is done by slapping or blocking the ball with ...

while posting four

interception 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 ...

s and only allowing receptions on 26.7% of the passes thrown at him.

Pro Football Focus Pro Football Focus (also written as ProFootballFocus, and often referred to by its initials, PFF) is a sports analytics company that focuses on thorough analysis of the National Football League (NFL) and NCAA Division-I football in the United Sta ...

(PFF) named him a second-team

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

selection after the season. As a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

in 2022, he recorded seven pass breakups and only one interception, partly attributed to being targeted less by

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

s. Luter was invited to the

2023 Senior Bowl The 2023 Senior Bowl was a college football all-star game played on February 4, 2023, at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. The game featured prospects for the 2023 draft of the professional National Football League (NFL), predominant ...

and finished his stint at South Alabama having only allowed catches on 45.3% of passes thrown at him, while recording 17 pass breakups and drawing only six

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * P ...

Professional career

Luter was selected by the

in the fifth round (155th overall) of the

2023 NFL Draft The 2023 NFL Draft will be the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players. The draft is scheduled to be held in the plaza outside of Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, on April 27–29 ...

. He was placed on the reserve/

PUP Pup is a name for a young animal, such as a puppy. Pup or Pups may also refer to: Places * Pup Cove, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica * Pup Creek, Kentucky * Pup Rock, Graham Land, Antarctica People * Michael Clarke (cricketer), Australian cri ...

list to start the 2023 season. On November 18, he was activated from the reserve/PUP.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luter, Darrell, Jr. 2000 births Living people American football cornerbacks Players of American football from Hattiesburg, Mississippi Pearl River Wildcats football players South Alabama Jaguars football players San Francisco 49ers players