Malcolm Luciano Rodriguez (born March 29, 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 wit ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

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

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

Early years

Rodriguez attended

Wagoner High School Wagoner High School is a high school in Wagoner, Oklahoma. Notable alumni * Kevin Peterson, American football player *Malcolm Rodriguez Malcolm Luciano Rodriguez (born March 29, 1999) is an American football linebacker for the Detroit Lions ...

Wagoner, Oklahoma Wagoner is a city in Wagoner County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 8,323 at the 2010 census,CensusViewer: Population of the City of Wagoner, Oklahoma. Retrieved March 16, 201/ref> compared to the figure of 7,669 recorded in 2000 Un ...

. He played

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 ...

and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

in high school. During his career he had 115

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Americ ...

with 6,144 passing yards and 2,449 rushing yards. He was born to a

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

father and

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...

mother, holding a card for the

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...

College career

Rodriguez joined Oklahoma State in 2017 and played there until 2021. After starting his career as a safety he moved to linebacker in 2019. As a senior he was named a first-team All-American 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 ...

. During his career, he had 408 tackles, 7.5 sacks, two interceptions, and a touchdown. In his final college game, he was named the MVP of the 2022 Fiesta Bowl.

Professional career

Rodriguez was selected by the

with the 188th pick 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 ...

. As a rookie, he appeared in 16 games and started 15. He finished with one sack, 87 total tackles, two passes defended, and one forced fumble. He was named to the

Pro Football Writers Association The Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA), sometimes known as Pro Football Writers Association, is an organization that purports to be " heofficial voice of pro football writers, promoting and fighting for access to NFL personnel to best serve ...

All-Rookie Team.

References

External links

Detroit Lions bioOklahoma State Cowboys bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Malcolm 1999 births Living people People from Tahlequah, Oklahoma Players of American football from Oklahoma American football linebackers Oklahoma State Cowboys football players Detroit Lions players American sportspeople of Mexican descent Cherokee Nation sportspeople