Right when one Spartan leaves Seattle (Kenneth Walker III), another takes his place. OK, so Joshua Eaton isn’t officially a Seahawk, so he can’t be the Michigan State representative for the organization — yet.
Following the 2026 NFL Draft where he didn’t hear his name called, Eaton was invited to the Seattle Seahawks’ rookie minicamp this offseason. He’ll have a chance to make an impression on the coaching staff as well as the front office.
Eaton played just one season at Michigan State and his presence wasn’t felt as much as the coaching staff had hoped and anticipated. The former four-star recruit came over from Texas State where he spent two seasons after beginning his career at Oklahoma.
When he committed to Michigan State under Jonathan Smith, many expected him to have a breakout season in the green and white. A cornerback transfer did break out, but it was Malcolm Bell and not Eaton. The former Texas State cornerback had just 19 tackles and two pass breakups which were his lowest totals since 2022 with Oklahoma.
Eaton didn’t live up to expectations in East Lansing, but we’ve seen transfers who struggled at Michigan State a bit catch on in the NFL after going undrafted — Nate Carter and Ameer Speed come to mind.
A minicamp invite is a start, but that means that Eaton is going to have one heck of an uphill battle to fight if he plans on making a 53-man NFL roster this fall.
Joshua Eaton joined Michigan State in the wrong era
A decade ago, if you were a talented cornerback recruit, picking Michigan State would have been a no-brainer. Mark Dantonio had the defense humming every year and the ‘No Fly Zone’ lasted longer than the oft-celebrated 2013 season.
Unfortunately, Eaton was born a little too late and he joined a Michigan State defense that was getting torched week in and week out and he played for a head coach that probably didn’t use him right.
When Eaton committed, I thought that he was going to be a really good player and while he did start in eight games, he just wasn’t as consistent as Spartan fans had hoped. There were instances of him looking like an All-Big Ten cornerback, but for everyone of those, there was at least one instance of him getting beat. He has a lot of work to do, but the talent is there; he just needs the right coaching.
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