Nick
Samac.
Nick
Samac.
Michigan St.· 6'4"· 307 lb
"A five-year center who won with timing, leverage and a mean streak on the move, and lost the Combine to a fractured fibula — the seventh round was the price of the injury, not of the tape."Pre-draft read
A five-year center at Michigan State who took nearly all of his 2,427 college snaps with his hand on the ball, Samac is a rhythm blocker whose value begins with a clean, quick exchange and immediate hand placement. He fires out low, keeps hands, hips and feet synchronized through contact, and usually wins the leverage battle before a nose tackle can restack him.
The signature is movement. He is at his best pulling, climbing to linebacker depth and leading down the line on pin-and-pull concepts, where his short-area quickness and finishing temperament stand out. Protection is the softer half: he punches with inside hands and sorts twists quickly, but his base narrows against pure power and bull rushers can walk him backward.
Zone and gap-scheme hybrid run game that lets the center pull, reach and climb rather than sit and two-gap in a phone booth.
Year 1: swing interior reserve and jumbo package blocker. Ceiling: starting center in a movement-based run scheme.
A drop-back, empty-heavy passing offense that isolates him one-on-one against a 340-pound nose on obvious passing downs.
The Ravens drafted a Linderbaum insurance policy; Carolina found a serviceable one.
Nick Samac — Welcome to the Ravens
Michigan State center reel cut after the 228th pick: snap quickness, pulls and second-level climbs.
C | Nick Samac Michigan State Enters NFL Draft
Pre-draft compilation focused on his interior run blocking and finishing through the whistle.
Michigan State commit Nick Samac — Highlights vs. Solon
Mentor High School tape showing the movement and mean streak that made him a four-star interior recruit.
Samac is a technician, not an athlete you draft on traits. He is a center by identity — a game captain, an Academic All-Big Ten pick, and the voice that held a fractured Michigan State line together through the program's worst season in a decade. Everything he does well flows from that: snap timing, front recognition, communication, and the leverage discipline that lets a 6-4 body play low.
His tape is a run-game tape. He was the full-time starter in 2022 and 2023, honorable mention All-Big Ten both years, and the best version of him arrives on the move — reach blocks, pulls and climbs where he picks a target and finishes through the whistle. The flags are honest: he locks onto a second-level path and struggles to adjust, his drive base gets narrow when hurried, and he leaned on two-hand strikes often enough to draw holding calls. A fractured left fibula against Indiana on November 18 ended his season and cost him the Combine workout.
The board treated him as a scheme-specific late-round center, most services landing on a sixth-round grade with the injury as the tiebreaker. Baltimore, thin behind Tyler Linderbaum after three offensive line departures, took him at 228 as a developmental backup who could learn guard — sensible math for a seventh-rounder with 32 career starts.
- 01
Snap-to-set timing
Gets the ball back cleanly and immediately, then re-establishes his hands and stance in one motion with no wasted step at the point of attack.
- 02
Movement skills at center
Fluid on reach blocks, pulls and climbs, with enough range to lead down the line on pin-and-pull and gap concepts as a lead blocker.
- 03
Leverage discipline
Plays with natural bend and a low pad level, which lets him seal inside lanes and absorb the first surge from a bigger nose tackle.
- 04
Finishing temperament
Plays through the whistle with a mean streak, hunts extra work when uncovered, and tags moving targets rather than falling off blocks.
- 05
Football IQ and command
Five years of front recognition, twist and stunt identification, game captain reps, and three Academic All-Big Ten nods behind the pivot.
- 01
Anchor against power
True bull rushers can uproot his base and push him back into the pocket, and two-gapping nose tackles will discard his base block.
- 02
Narrow drive base
His feet get hurried and his stance shrinks when he is rushed, which costs him the power to finish pro defenders once contact stalls.
- 03
Adjustment on climbs
He picks a path to the second level and locks onto it, so shifty linebackers who move late can slip his angle in space.
- 04
Hand variety and penalties
Too reliant on two-hand strikes; arm-over and swim moves beat him inside, producing 15 holding penalties across his last three years.
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Michigan State | 7 |
| 2020 | Michigan State | 7 |
| 2021 | Michigan State | — |
| 2022 | Michigan State | 12 |
| 2023 | Michigan State | 11 |
| Career | — | 49 |
Offensive linemen do not accumulate box-score statistics, so only games and starts are listed. Career totals (49 games, 32 starts, 2,427 snaps, all at center) and the per-season start counts are from Michigan State's official release. The 2021 games-played split is not published consistently across sources, so it is left blank rather than guessed; Samac made no starts that season.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Exactly what he shadowed in Carolina — a valued interior backup who spot-starts when the room breaks.
The best case: a light-footed, high-IQ center who out-thinks power and starts a decade on smarts and movement.
The floor Baltimore knew well: practice squad shuffle, a few active seasons, never a settled starter.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Baltimore kept him. Samac made the initial 53-man roster as a rookie in 2024 behind Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum, but never dressed — zero games played, a full year as the emergency pivot and a body in the offensive line room. The Ravens waived him in the 2025 cutdown and re-signed him to the practice squad, and that looked like the shape of his career until injuries elsewhere changed it. On September 16, 2025, Carolina lost Austin Corbett and Robert Hunt to injured reserve in the same afternoon and signed Samac off Baltimore's practice squad straight to the 53. He finished the season as Cade Mays' backup and a jumbo-package body, appearing in 11 games without a start, and remains on the Panthers roster into 2026 wearing No. 60.
For a pick used at 228, that is a return. Seventh-rounders who survive two cutdowns, get poached onto another team's active roster and log a full season of game days have already outperformed the slot. What has not happened is the leap the run-blocking tape teased: he still has not started an NFL game, and the pass-protection anchor that scouts flagged is exactly the trait keeping him a backup rather than a bridge starter. He is what the Ravens paid for — a smart, tough, scheme-specific interior reserve — and in the seventh round that is a functional outcome, not a miss.
Data note: Offensive linemen do not accumulate box-score statistics, so only games and starts are listed. Career totals (49 games, 32 starts, 2,427 snaps, all at center) and the per-season start counts are from Michigan State's official release. The 2021 games-played split is not published consistently across sources, so it is left blank rather than guessed; Samac made no starts that season.