Michigan State’s 2021 Peach Bowl-winning team was special. It had all the pieces that fans could ask for: exciting offense, clutch defense, a Heisman candidate, talent at every position, and a head coach who was great at identifying talent.
The Spartans were looking like they were a year away from being on top of the college football world, but Mel Tucker just couldn’t keep himself in order off the field and the team struggled on it.
By 2023, the 2021 team felt like a distant memory. The three-headed monster of Kenneth Walker III, Jayden Reed, and Jalen Nailor that led the way to the Peach Bowl and 11 wins was all officially graduated and moved on and the Spartans really didn’t have much juice anymore. The program felt stale. Reed was the last true connection to that success from 2021 and when he was gone, the program just felt different. At least when Michigan State was losing in 2022, Reed was making winning plays (the Wisconsin game comes to mind).
Now, Michigan State is still trying to climb out of that hole that was left with the departure of that three-headed monster and now that trio is getting paid big time.
Without doing any research at all, I would be willing to bet that the trio of Walker III, Reed, and Nailor is making more than 99 percent of college teammate trios in the NFL.
When you look at what they’re all getting paid, it’s tough to argue.
The Michigan State trio all signed new contracts
On Friday evening, Reed became the last of the three to sign a new deal, but he was the highest-paid of the bunch, believe it or not. Although Walker III was the Super Bowl MVP, veteran running backs don’t make quite as much as you’d think just based on their short shelf life.
Reed signed a three-year, $50 million extension.
Earlier in the offseason, Nailor signed a three-year, $35 million deal with the Las Vegas Raiders after spending his first four years in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings. Around the same time, Walker signed a new three-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs after spending his first four years with the Seattle Seahawks and being the reigning Super Bowl MVP.
All three of these guys are now worth over $150 million in NFL contracts.
If you’re Pat Fitzgerald and the rest of the Michigan State coaching staff — especially Courtney Hawkins — you’re using this as a recruiting pitch.
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