Eighth of an 11-part series. Coming tomorrow: cornerbacks.
There is very little on a football field Troy Andersen can’t do.
He has played quarterback, running back and fullback. He has spent time at inside and outside linebacker. He has been a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) All-American on both sides of the ball. He has even punted.
The Montana State star ran the gamut in college, filling in whenever he was asked. He went from a running back/outside linebacker as a freshman to a full-time quarterback as a sophomore back to a linebacker/wildcat quarterback/fullback as a junior to inside linebacker this past season.
“Kind of do whatever he could for the team [type of guy],” coach Brent Vigen said in a phone interview.
That selfless attitude got Andersen pretty far, and it will be taking him to playing on Sundays very soon. He is projected to be taken as high as the second round in the upcoming 2022 NFL Draft.
When Vigen arrived at Montana State from Wyoming early in 2021, Andersen’s athleticism reminded him of one of his former players, Logan Wilson, who was a 2020 third-round pick of the Bengals and is a starting middle linebacker. He wanted to use Andersen in a similar fashion.
“He was all-in, he was all-in with the team and all-in doing whatever he could, and he had a tremendous season for us,” Vigen said.
Andersen was the Big Sky defensive player of the year, and a runner-up for the Buck Buchanan Award, given to the top FCS defensive player. He led Montana State to the FCS title game, notching 147 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, two sacks, two interceptions and seven pass breakups.
Not bad for someone who had never played the position before. The Dillon, Mont., native’s stock has only risen since then. The 6-foot-3, 243-pound Andersen impressed scouts and analysts alike at the scouting combine and Senior Bowl.
His 4.42-second, 40-yard dash at the combine was the fastest among all linebackers who took part in the event and the fifth-fastest at the event by a player weighing over 240 pounds since 2003, according to Next Gen Stats. He was one of five linebackers to earn an “Elite” athleticism score. It led NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah to proclaim him to be an immediate starter at the next level. ESPN’s Todd McShay has made a similar prediction.
At the Senior Bowl, Andersen more than held his own against top competition. Most importantly, he showed his versatility at linebacker, not just with the ability to play at the line of scrimmage as a “real punch you in the face type of linebacker,” which is how ProFootballNetwork.com draft analyst Tony Pauline described him, but also to cover running backs and tight ends down the field. He wasn’t often asked to do that for Montana State.
“When he added that element and showed that ability to do so at the Senior Bowl — those were questions about his game — I think his draft stock really took off,” Pauline said. “He basically cemented himself as a Day 2 pick. … He really showed himself to be a three-down linebacker.”
He did feel nerves, particularly at the Senior Bowl, coming from the FCS level. There was pressure to prove he belonged. Andersen was unsure how it would go.
“Then you kind of just realize it’s still football,” he said at the Montana State Pro Day. “It was a good confidence boost. You play at Montana State, and I think we play good football here, and you’re like, ‘Maybe.’ And then you go down there, and it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I guess we do.’ We have really good players here.”
Soon, he will get to represent his school on the biggest stage. Andersen is set to make Montana State history, as the program’s highest drafted player since cornerback Joey Thomas went in the third round in 2004. Unlike so many of the prospects who will realize a lifelong dream shortly, he took a circuitous route to get to this point by playing several positions.
“It’s kind of every little boy’s dream. You sit on the couch and you watch all the games growing up, and you’re like, ‘Man, that’d be pretty cool,’ ” Andersen said. “To have an opportunity to move on to where it’s the best in the world playing football, it’s a tremendous opportunity and it’s one I don’t take for granted. I’m really excited for that next step.”
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