NFL draft: Michigan State football C Nick Samac selected by Baltimore in 7th round
Nick Samac returned to Michigan State football for a fifth year last fall, but a broken leg ended his final season prematurely.
That didn’t stop him from becoming the latest Spartan to be selected in the NFL draft.
Samac was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the seventh round at No. 228 overall Saturday in the event hosted in downtown Detroit, the first MSU offensive lineman taken since A.J. Arcuri went to the Chargers in the seventh round of the 2022 draft and the first MSU center selected since the Rams took Brian Allen in 2018's fourth round.
FORMER SPARTAN: Buffalo Bills pick WR Keon Coleman in Round 2 of 2024 NFL draft.
That means a Spartan has been picked in 83 of the 84 NFL drafts. MSU’s 80-year streak ended in 2021.
Samac suffered a broken left fibula on the first drive of the Spartans’ next-to-last game of the season, Nov. 18 at Indiana. He received invitations to the East-West Shrine Bowl and the NFL scouting combine but was unable to participate on the field in either. Samac said during the Big Ten Network broadcast of MSU’s final practice last Saturday that he was “getting back healthy.”
The 6-foot-4, 307-pound native of Mentor, Ohio, started 32 of his 48 games at MSU after arriving in 2019 as a Mark Dantonio recruit. Samac played all 2,427 of his snaps at center during his five-year Spartan career that was extended into 2023 with the NCAA’s pandemic waiver for the 2020 season.
Last year, wide receiver Jayden Reed went in the second round to Green Bay with the 50th overall pick. Punter Bryce Baringer and defensive back Ameer Speed both went to New England in the sixth round.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: NFL draft 2024: Michigan State football C Nick Samac to Ravens in 7th
