I think the numbers will bear that out as we get further into the portal era. They tend to commit earlier, to find a place they’re comfortable and stay. have shown they can do, offensive linemen are different than other positions. And while that sounds like something Tucker and Co. MSU is going to need to add a couple offensive linemen through the transfer portal. Because while the passing game looks stacked, there are concerns up front, in both the running game and protection. Carr’s development as a prototypical tight end could give the Spartans an element they didn’t have this season. The potential of this passing attack is really something - as Thorne continues to grow, as Carr and Coleman come into their own, with a proven playmaker like Mosley back, as well. Pretty good for what will essentially be a 2 1/2-season career in East Lansing.įor MSU's program, Reed’s decision is no small deal. He’d also finish fourth in career receiving yards and touchdown catches. If Reed duplicates his numbers from this year next season, he’ll finish third on MSU’s all-time receptions list - despite his first 56 catches coming as a freshman at WMU and his first year playing at MSU being a seven-game season due to the pandemic. MORE: Couch: As Kenneth Walker exits, Payton Thorne takes the reins for Michigan State's football team and its dreams Nothing wrong with holding onto that for another year. Thorne knows he's got a receiver who makes his life easier. Reed knows he’s got a quarterback who can showcase him. And they’ll now get one more year together. These guys intentionally wound up playing together at MSU, after originally planning to play together at Western Michigan. Their friendship and care for each other is genuine. The joke is that each week some broadcast crew discovers it and passes it off as new information. But no one is poking fun at their friendship. The storyline of their friendship, dating back to playing together in junior high, has become a fact so obvious and overplayed that it gets mocked on social media. His return, however, is also a testament to the culture Mel Tucker has built, to the experiences Reed is enjoying at MSU and to his relationship with his teammates, most significantly with Thorne. In that regard, this is perhaps good business - a chance to improve his stock, to begin a year as a notable NFL prospect and on the radar for national awards, to try to dominate the college game, if he has that in him. The NFL would have taken him now, perhaps as early as Day 2 of the draft (Rounds 2-3), but more likely in the middle rounds, according to a couple NFL scouts, one of whom had a fourth-round grade on Reed as both a receiver and returner. Reed is staying because he wants to be at MSU next season. MORE: Couch: Michigan State's football season was one of the more impressive seasons you'll ever see He's got an obvious feel for the position and his ability as a returner adds to his value. He is a bona fide college star, with the speed, hands and savvy to be a pro. He caught 59 passes for 1,026 yards and 10 scores, among the top seasons in MSU history in both yards (ninth) and TDs (sixth). Reed’s final act of this season included two outstanding touchdown catches with defenders draped over him. There was nothing individually left for Tillman to do in the college game after his brilliant final two weeks, nothing he couldn’t get done at the next level. I thought Reed might have had his moment in college football - much the way Xavier Tillman did for MSU’s basketball team at the end of his junior year. But when a player gets some time away from a season, all the love they have for a place and their teammates often isn’t enough to counter a business decision. There were clues Reed was seriously considering a return. He’s endured enough injuries that I can see why this is his time, even if he’ll have to prove it at the NFL scouting combine and in a training camp somewhere. Nailor, though, has NFL ability and has turned himself into more than just a speed guy over the last year. If one of them stayed, I thought it would more likely be Nailor. I thought both he and Nailor might move on. from having to become go-to targets and allows them to take their next steps while defenses focus on him. He takes the pressure off Mosley and Coleman and Co.
Reed’s return is one heckuva development. Between junior-to-be Tre Mosley, emerging youngsters Keon Coleman and tight end Malik Carr and incoming players like Antonio Gates Jr., MSU wasn’t likely to suffer from a dearth of pass-catchers for quarterback Payton Thorne. I think Michigan State would have been fine at receiver next season had Jayden Reed followed teammate Jalen Nailor into the NFL draft.
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