Michigan State Football: Offensive coaches boost stock with NFL draft

Michigan State football’s offensive coaching staff boosted its stock with the results of the 2022 NFL Draft. Eyes have been opened.

After the 2021 NFL Draft, there was some doubt and uncertainty regarding the talent on Michigan State football’s roster.

The Spartans’ 80-year draft streak was snapped and a good portion of the roster had transferred after Mel Tucker’s first season. He was building a team up from basically nothing and had to try and start a new draft streak the following year. It would be a tough sell to recruits if you went 0-for-2 in your first two NFL drafts. Having zero players selected in back-to-back years would be a nightmare scenario.

Luckily for Tucker, he has an offensive coaching staff that knows how to develop players and they all raised their stock during the 2022 NFL Draft process.

Oh, and during the 2021 season when they crafted an explosive offense.

Going into the season, no one knew what to expect from the offense which would be starting a new quarterback, running back, and a shaky offensive line. All they did was put up some numbers and churned out a 3,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard receiver, and 1,600-yard Doak Walker Award-winning rusher. And Chris Kapilovic was able to get AJ Arcuri drafted which I didn’t see coming. I thought he was one of the Spartans’ best linemen, but a year ago, I didn’t think that’d be possible.

Not only did Kapilovic boost his own coaching stock by getting Arcuri drafted, but Courtney Hawkins boosted his with the selection of Jalen Nailor, Ted Gilmore helped his with Connor Heyward going in the sixth round to the Steelers, and Effrem Reed built that resume with Kenneth Walker III going in the second round.

And the man that ties that all together is Jay Johnson who deserves a ton of credit for putting four offensive players in the NFL via the 2022 draft.

An offense that was starting Connor Heyward and Jordon Simmons at running back and Rocky Lombardi at quarterback a year ago was able to have four players selected in the 2022 NFL Draft because of the great minds and developers of talent on the offensive coaching staff.

All the Johnson doubters have gotten much quieter over the past year and he’s only getting more talent on that side of the ball. The future of the Michigan State offense is bright.