For Lenoir-Rhyne alumni, Week 2 of the 2026 NFL season offered something genuinely rare: two Bears on opposing rosters, both suiting up on the same Sunday.
Kyle Dugger and Dareke Young headline an L-R moment
Kyle Dugger and Dareke Young — the two most prominent names to come out of Hickory in recent NFL drafts — were both active on September 20, playing in separate games that underscored just how far the Division II program's talent pipeline has reached.
Dugger, now a safety with the Cincinnati Bengals, was part of a dominant defensive performance as Cincinnati shut down the Houston Texans 20–6. Detailed individual stat lines for Dugger weren't available from the box score, but the Bengals' secondary was central to holding Houston to just six points — the kind of unit-level win that safety play quietly drives. Dugger has carved out a reputation as one of the harder-hitting, more versatile safeties in the league since his days as a Patriots stalwart, and his presence on a Bengals defense making a statement in Week 2 is exactly the kind of storyline L-R fans have come to enjoy following.
Meanwhile, Dareke Young had a moment of his own out west. The Raiders wide receiver hauled in one catch for 27 yards in Las Vegas's 26–14 win over the Los Angeles Chargers — a victory that snapped some early-season tension for a Raiders squad looking to establish an identity. Young's 27-yard grab wasn't a highlight-reel stat line, but it was a meaningful contribution in a game Las Vegas controlled, and it signals he remains a factor in the Raiders' offensive rotation.
A third Bear is in the mix, too
It's worth noting that defensive end Jason Poe is also on an active NFL roster, suiting up for the Philadelphia Eagles. No game stats for Poe surfaced during this window, but the fact that three Lenoir-Rhyne alumni are currently on NFL rosters simultaneously is a program achievement worth pausing on. For a small private university in the South Atlantic Conference, that's not a footnote — it's a genuine recruiting and development story.
The bigger picture
Lenoir-Rhyne doesn't produce NFL players every year. When it does, it tends to produce ones who stick. Dugger is the standard-bearer — a multi-year starter who has made the case that small-school safeties can develop into legitimate NFL starters. Young and Poe are writing their own chapters. Week 2 was a small but satisfying reminder for Bears faithful that Saturday afternoons in Hickory can lead somewhere on Sundays.
With Dugger's Bengals and Young's Raiders both picking up wins in the same week, L-R alumni had very little to complain about heading into Week 3.
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