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Michigan State Football will have seven players present in the NFL Draft Combine, vying for a chance to get drafted and play at the highest level in the sport. This class features some big names in the MSU Football world. From Kenny Willekes to Raequan Williams and Brian Lewerke, some of the best players of these last few years in Spartan football will be eligible in this year’s draft. NFL Draft analysts have started weighing in on the Spartans in the draft, and Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network spoke to the media on Friday and had some interesting things to say about this MSU draft class.
Daniel Jeremiah spoke on a number of different Spartans, but like Mel Kiper Jr of ESPN, he also had Josiah Scott as MSU’s top draft prospect:
“He plays outside, I think he’s going to be a nickel, he’s got makeup speed, he can pattern read, he’s really fluid, he can find the ball,” Jeremiah said about Scott. “He just got outsized a little bit on the outside losing some of those 50-50 balls. He’s somebody that I have as (Michigan State’s) top guy. He’s probably in that fourth-round range for me.”
On Raequan Williams:
“Can play the 1 and the 3 technique,” Jeremiah said. “He’s got the ability to collapse the pocket. He’s all power and bull rush. He just doesn’t have a great get-off and he’s a little bit stiff.”
On Kenny Willekes:
“More effort than really twitch and explosiveness,” Jeremiah said of Willekes. “He kills tight ends – man, he loves to play over tight ends, does a great job against them. … He can bull rush. I just didn’t see a ton of twitch or a ton of burst with him. Although, I’ll give him credit, he did some good things down in Mobile at the Senior Bowl.”
On Cody White:
“He just has a lot of drops when I studied him,” Jeremiah said. “Thought he was more of a one-speed player.”
On Joe Bachie:
“You have what happened with him missing games. … I thought he did a good job directing traffic,” Jeremiah said. “He can float, sort and fill and make some plays there. I just thought he had really average speed and range and I didn’t anticipate he would get drafted.”
On Darrell Stewart Jr.:
“Darrell Stewart, another wide receiver who I thought was a free agent, who is good on bubbles and tunnel screens,” Jeremiah said. “He can work some in the middle of the field, I just didn’t see a lot of juice.”
He also mentioned that he did not anticipate that Brian Lewerke would be drafted.