Jayden Reed NFL draft stock: Where could he and other ex-Michigan State guys get selected

Kenneth Walker III ensured Michigan State football's hiatus from having a player selected in the NFL draft lasted just one year. Three others joined him in getting taken, making it 81 of 82 years that at least one Spartan was picked.

Jayden Reed is expected to extend MSU’s new streak to two straight drafts, all while celebrating his 23rd birthday in style.

The wide receiver is projected as a potential second-day selection in this week’s NFL draft. The first round begins at 8 p.m. Thursday, the second and third rounds at 7 p.m. Friday and the final four rounds starts at noon Saturday.

“I’m really happy and blessed to be part of it,” Reed said during MSU’s pro day in March. “My birthday is on Day 2, so hopefully we can get somewhere in the second or third round or something like that. But anywhere my name gets called, I’m gonna be excited and grateful.”

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Reed’s stock has continued to ascend since finishing his injury-laden final season. It started with a foot issue during preseason camp in August, then he hurt his hip on a hard fall against Western Michigan in the season opener, followed the next week by a deep laceration on his lower back from sliding into a corner of a bench against Akron. That cut forced the senior from Naperville, Illinois, to miss the only game of his college career at Washington the next week.

His injuries coincided with a dip in production, going from leading MSU with 59 catches for 1,026 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2021 to finishing last season with 55 catches for 636 yards and five scores.

Plus, the 5-foot-11, 187-pound Reed also stopped returning kickoffs but continued to return punts, averaging 8.8 yards on 13 returns (he did have apparent touchdowns called back against Akron and Wisconsin). A year earlier, Reed earned first-team All-American honors as an all-purpose player and was a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award as the nation's most versatile player thanks to averaging 23.5 yards on kickoff returns and 19.8 yards on punt returns with a nation-leading two TDs.

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Most seven-round mock drafts project Reed as a third- or fourth-round pick, though his stock has been rising rapidly. ESPN analyst Todd McShay said on Twitter last week he gave Reed a second-round grade.

“He's a little bit undersized, but he accelerates off the line so quickly,” McShay said on a conference call earlier this winter. “He knows how to uncover, a great route runner. Really confident with his hands, not only as a receiver, but also in the return game.”

Reed impressed scouts at the Senior Bowl, then carried it over to the NFL combine in February. He ran a 4.45 40-yard dash with a 1.57-second 10-yard split at the combine, posting a 4.29 in the 20-yard shuttle while going 33.5 inches in the vertical jump and 10 feet, 1 inch in the broad jump. And he did so with one eye swollen shut due to an infection.

“My buddy Jim Nagy I think is making it his personal campaign to make sure that (Reed) does not get overlooked through this process. Jim running the Senior Bowl has seen a lot of him, and he's a big fan,” said NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah, who considers Reed a third-round prospect. “He's a good player. To me, I put him in the third-round range. The punt return/kick return background shows up. He's quick, he can make people miss. He gets separation. He's really tough. He's an outstanding blocker.

“I think he's a really good player. Jim's been advocating for him to go in the second round, I wouldn't be shocked if he did.”

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MSU quarterback Payton Thorne said he and a few others are planning to attend Reed’s draft party this weekend in Florida, which also is doubling as a birthday bash.

“I can see a dream come true for him,” said Thorne, who has been friends with Reed since they were in middle school.

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Other Spartans on the radar

Punter Bryce Baringer, linebacker Ben VanSumeren, defensive tackle Jacob Slade and safety Xavier Henderson all have worked their way onto seven-round mock drafts leading into this weekend.

All are being projected as potential third-day picks, which often can be a crapshoot — few had Arcuri on their draft boards at this time last year, for instance, and he wound up starting once and playing in the Rams’ final eight games.

Baringer is rated by CBSSports.com and NFL.com and other analysts, including ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., as the No. 1 punter in the draft. The former walk-on became a 2022 consensus first-team All-American by leading the nation with a school-record 49.0-yard average. Baringer, who averaged 48.4 yards in 2021, led the Big Ten for the second straight year en route to winning conference punter of the year and becoming Ray Guy Award finalist in 2022.

The Waterford native finished with a Big Ten-record 46.0-yard career average, which is the sixth highest in Football Bowl Subdivision history among punters with between 150-249 attempts. Baringer landed 44 of his 109 punts the past two seasons inside opponents' 20-yard line and boomed 50 of them for more than 50 yards while taking just 12 touchbacks.

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Seven-round mock drafts by The Sporting News and The Athletic have Baringer going in the sixth round, but Kiper and Jeremiah both say specialists are the hardest to predict a draft slot.

“I think with his leg strength, he's going to interest people on Day 3,” Kiper said recently during a conference call. “I can't say when.”

Though he wasn’t at the NFL combine with Reed and Baringer, VanSumeren turned heads with his pro day workout at MSU. His 42.5-inch vertical jump and 10-11 broad jump would have been the best among linebackers had he posted them in Indianapolis, while the Bay City native’s 29 reps at 225 pounds on the bench press would have tied for first at the combine and his time of 4.40 seconds in the 40-yard dash would have been second among linebackers.

After beginning his career at Michigan as a fullback, the 6-2, 237-pound VanSumeren transferred to MSU for the 2021 season and had 93 tackles in 24 games as a Spartan, including 81 and two sacks in 2022.

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Jeremiah called VanSumeren’s performance “an unbelievable, kind of all-time pro day.” He is pegged as a sixth-round pick according to ProFootballNetwork.com and a seventh-round selection by NFL.com.

“He's very much going to get drafted,” Jeremiah said. “He'll go somewhere late on Day 3, but his workout was enough to get him picked.”

Both Slade and Henderson were considered potential draft picks going into the 2022 season, but both also battled right leg injuries that cost them games and exposure.

Slade is projected as a sixth-round pick by ProFootballNetwork.com and as a seventh-round pick according to both CBSSports.com and ESPN’s Matt Miller. The 6-foot-4, 305-pound native of Lewis Center, Ohio, missed four games with a right leg injury but finished with 20 tackles – 3½ for a loss, plus half a sack — in eight games

Henderson landed on just the CBSSports.com mock draft as a seventh-round selection. A two-time captain and native of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Henderson finished his career with 273 tackles to finish 28th in MSU history. He missed five games in 2022, finishing with 38 tackles and two forced fumbles.

Potential free-agent signings

Running back Jarek Broussard, who transferred to MSU from Colorado before last season, bypassed returning for a sixth year of eligibility to enter the draft. Tyler Hunt, who finished his six seasons as a Spartan at tight end after serving as a punter and kicker earlier in his career, has converted to a long snapper in order to try and progress into the pro ranks.

Others working to get picked up as free agents include tight end Daniel Barker; defensive backs Kendell Brooks, Ameer Speed and Ronald Williams II; and offensive linemen Matt Carrick, Brian Greene and Jarrett Horst. Six of those seven arrived as transfers – Horst, Brooks and Williams each played two seasons at MSU; Barker, Greene and Speed each played one.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football: Jayden Reed among hopefuls for NFL draft