Michigan State underclassman cornerback Justin Layne is a another player we’ll likely be discussing quite a bit as a possible 2019 NFL Draft selection of the Pittsburgh Steelers for the next several weeks as he’s already been linked to the team in the first few rounds of some recent mock drafts floating around. With our draft profile of Layne forthcoming on the site, a few readers are already asking to see more about the plays he made during his college career at Michigan State.
In an effort to provide you as much information as possible when it comes to several top players in the 2019 draft class, I am currently putting together as many contextualization posts as I can between now and the end of April and especially when it comes to players who the Steelers might select in the various rounds. In this post, we’ll contextualize the defensive plays made by Layne during his college career and specifically those that included him registering ether a tackle for loss, a sack, a pass defensed, an interception, or a forced fumble.
Layne registered a half of a sack in the 34 games that he played in at Michigan State dating back to 2016 and 4.5 total tackles that resulted in lost yardage. He also registered 3 interceptions to go along with 24 total pass breakups and a forced fumble. He converted from wide receiver to cornerback during his 2016 freshman season so keep that in mind. I was able to track down all but 4 of the 34 key defensive plays listed above that Layne made during his college career and they are all contextualized for you in the table below and in order. Each play is linked to a video of it on Youtube.
| YEAR | OPP | QRT | TIME | DWN | DIST | SIDE | LOS | TYPE | LINK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | NU | 1Q | 8:39 | 3 | 6 | NU | 39 | INT | VIDEO |
| 2016 | RU | 1Q | 14:12 | 1 | 10 | RU | 20 | TFL | NO VIDEO |
| 2016 | RU | 3Q | 6:48 | 1 | 10 | RU | 32 | TFL | NO VIDEO |
| 2016 | PSU | 4Q | 3:59 | 1 | 10 | MSU | 40 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2017 | ND | 4Q | 5:04 | 3 | 7 | MSU | 24 | TFL | VIDEO |
| 2017 | MICH | 2Q | :41 | 3 | 12 | MICH | 35 | FF | VIDEO |
| 2017 | IND | 1Q | 13:58 | 2 | 3 | IND | 50 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2017 | PSU | 1Q | 1:39 | 2 | 10 | MSU | 29 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2017 | PSU | 3Q | 2:19 | 3 | 3 | MSU | 8 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2017 | OSU | 3Q | 9:28 | 3 | G | MSU | 10 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2017 | OSU | 3Q | 4:46 | 1 | 10 | OSU | 29 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2017 | OSU | 4Q | 13:54 | 1 | G | MSU | 7 | INT | VIDEO |
| 2017 | UMD | 2Q | 1:08 | 3 | 4 | UMD | 25 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2017 | UMD | 4Q | 4:04 | 1 | 10 | UMD | 47 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2017 | UMD | 4Q | 2:56 | 1 | 10 | MSU | 18 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | USU | 4Q | 5:12 | 2 | G | MSU | 1 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | ASU | 4Q | 14:34 | 2 | G | MSU | 6 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | CMU | 2Q | 2:07 | 3 | 10 | CMU | 27 | INT | VIDEO |
| 2018 | CMU | 4Q | 12:18 | 2 | 7 | MSU | 22 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | NU | 1Q | 14:52 | 3 | 10 | NU | 25 | TFL | VIDEO |
| 2018 | PSU | 3Q | :32 | 3 | 7 | MSU | 19 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | PUR | 1Q | 8:26 | 2 | G | MSU | 10 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | PUR | 4Q | 12:48 | 3 | 3 | MSU | 44 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | PUR | 4Q | 11:12 | 1 | 10 | MSU | 44 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | PUR | 4Q | 4:44 | 2 | 9 | MSU | 31 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | OSU | 1Q | 6:55 | 1 | 10 | OSU | 22 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | OSU | 1Q | 2:34 | 2 | 10 | OSU | 26 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | OSU | 1Q | 2:31 | 3 | 10 | OSU | 26 | SCK | VIDEO |
| 2018 | OSU | 2Q | 14:02 | 3 | 2 | OSU | 41 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | OSU | 2Q | 8:06 | 2 | 7 | MSU | 17 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | OSU | 3Q | 9:03 | 3 | 9 | MSU | 31 | TFL | VIDEO |
| 2018 | NEB | 2Q | 1:50 | 3 | 10 | NEB | 37 | PD | VIDEO |
| 2018 | RU | 1Q | 3:02 | 3 | 6 | RU | 31 | PD | NO VIDEO |
| 2018 | RU | 2Q | 7:04 | 3 | 4 | RU | 46 | PD | NO VIDEO |
