Troy
Andersen.
Troy
Andersen.
Montana State· 6'4"· 243 lb· 4.42s 40
"A running back, then a quarterback, then a conference Defensive Player of the Year in his only full season at linebacker: Andersen was the class's purest bet that speed can be taught football later."Pre-draft read
Rangy off-ball linebacker who spent one full season at the position and played it like a converted skill player, which is both the appeal and the caveat. Andersen is a straight-line missile: he triggers downhill on run keys and closes ground that most linebackers cannot, and his tackle production came from simply arriving first in the alley.
In coverage his athleticism lets him carry tight ends up the seam and run with backs on wheel routes, and the quarterback background shows in how quickly he processes formations. The rough edges are diagnosis and blocks — he reads late against play-action and runs around linemen instead of stacking and shedding. The signature is speed, both the timed kind and the kind that shows up on the back side.
One-gap, four-man front that keeps guards off the linebackers and lets a fast off-ball player run and hit in space.
Year 1: sub-package coverage linebacker and special-teams starter. Ceiling: every-down Mike whose range erases the width of the field.
A two-gap front that leaves him unblocked-but-untaught in tight quarters, asking him to take on pulling guards head-on before he learns to stack and shed.
He needs a defense that protects him with a stout front while the diagnostic side of his game catches up to the athleticism.
Montana State LB Troy Andersen Highlights
Redshirt-senior tape: range to the sideline, downhill triggers and seam coverage reps.
Troy Andersen Montana State Highlights
Career compilation across running back, quarterback and linebacker at Montana State.
Troy Andersen Montana State Highlights | Falcons second-round pick
Draft-cycle reel focused on the athletic traits Atlanta bought at pick 58.
Andersen is one of the most unusual résumés any scout will grade. He was Big Sky Freshman of the Year at running back in 2017, moved to quarterback in 2018 out of necessity and rushed for 1,412 yards and a school-record 21 touchdowns, moved to outside linebacker in 2019, lost 2020, and then played middle linebacker as a redshirt senior.
That one season at the position was overwhelming: roughly 140 tackles, 14 for loss, three sacks, two interceptions and seven pass breakups on the way to Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, runner-up for the Buck Buchanan Award and a run to the FCS title game. He then confirmed the athleticism at the Senior Bowl and the Combine, testing as one of the best movers in the class at the position. The flags were obvious: FCS competition, a single year of real linebacker reps, and instincts that lagged behind the speed because he had spent most of his career on the other side of the ball.
Boards ranged from a third-round contributor grade to a top-60 upside bet, depending on how much a team trusted development. Atlanta, using a pick acquired in the Julio Jones trade, took the traits at 58 and accepted that the football would have to be taught.
- 01
Elite range
Covers ground sideline to sideline better than almost any linebacker in the class, which turned into a 140-tackle season the first time he played the position full time.
- 02
Downhill trigger
Fires into the alley on run keys without hesitation and arrives with force, producing 14 tackles for loss in his only year as a full-time middle linebacker.
- 03
Coverage athleticism
Carries tight ends up the seam and runs with backs out of the backfield, giving a defense a linebacker it does not have to substitute on third down.
- 04
Quarterback processing
Two years under center gave him a formation-reading vocabulary that shows in how quickly he communicates checks as the middle of the defense.
- 05
Versatile athletic résumé
Big Sky Freshman of the Year at running back, first-team all-conference at quarterback and conference Defensive Player of the Year, all at the same school.
- 01
One year at the position
Essentially thirteen games of full-time linebacker tape, so the instincts, keys and reaction habits were all still being built from scratch.
- 02
Block navigation
Tries to run around linemen instead of stacking and shedding, and gets swallowed when a guard reaches the second level cleanly.
- 03
Late against play-action
Bites on run fakes and vacates his zone, a diagnosis issue that FCS quarterbacks rarely punished but NFL offenses will.
- 04
Level of competition
Big Sky offenses and an FCS playoff run do not replicate the speed and complexity he will see weekly, so most of the grade is projection.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.42sp50
- Vertical
- 36inp50
- Broad jump
- 128inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Montana State | — | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Montana State | — | 54 | 6.5 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 2021 | Montana State | — | 140 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| Career | — | — | 203 | 10.5 | 3 | 12 | 0 |
Montana State is FCS and is not covered by cfbstats, so the defensive ledger comes from Montana State releases and Wikipedia season summaries: 2017 (9 tackles, 1 sack as a two-way freshman), 2019 (54 tackles, 11.5 TFL, 6.5 sacks, 1 INT, 5 PD) and 2021 (140 tackles, 14 TFL, 3 sacks, 2 INT, 7 PD, per the January 6, 2022 school release, which may not include the FCS title game). Games played per season, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries are unverified and left blank. He played quarterback in 2018 (115-of-208, 1,195 passing yards, 3 TD, 7 INT, plus 1,412 rushing yards and 21 rushing touchdowns) and did not play defense that year; the 2020 season was lost.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A fast downhill linebacker who racks up tackles while the diagnosis and block navigation stay a work in progress.
The ceiling is a rangy converted athlete who becomes the communicator and the coverage engine of an entire defense.
The floor is an athletic backer who lives on special teams and in sub packages without ever taking the job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Troy Andersen has played his entire career with the Atlanta Falcons, serving as a starting inside linebacker when healthy. His career has been impacted by injuries.
Atlanta played him right away and the raw version worked: 69 tackles in seventeen rookie games with five starts, including a thirteen-tackle first start against San Francisco. Then availability took over. A shoulder and pectoral injury in Week 3 of 2023 sent him to injured reserve after two games. He came back in 2024 and produced the best stretch of his career — sixteen tackles and a 47-yard interception return for a touchdown against New Orleans in Week 4, earning NFC Defensive Player of the Week — but played only seven games. He then spent the entire 2025 season on the physically unable to perform list without ever being activated, and Atlanta released him in August 2026 after a contract restructure.
The evaluation named the right risk and still under-weighted it. Everyone wrote that a one-year linebacker from the FCS would need time, and the flashes he did produce — the range, the interception return, the tackle volume as a rookie — showed the athleticism was legitimate. What no board could price was that he would play just twenty-six games in four seasons. This is a miss, but it reads more like a health file than a scouting error.
Data note: from Tennessee