GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Evan Beerntsen, a graduate of Appleton North, had quite the journey to get to the NFL. After seven years in college, his NFL dreams came true this past weekend when the Ravens drafted him in the seventh round.
"You can't say I don't love football. I mean, I, I was playing it for seven years in college, so, and, you know, before I, that was before NIL too, like, so, um, yeah. It was, uh, it's been a crazy experience, crazy ride, and I'm just looking to extend it for a while longer," said the offensive lineman.
With the draft winding down on Saturday, he said he thought he might go undrafted, but four picks before the 2026 NFL draft came to an end, at pick 253 in the seventh round, the Ravens put in a card with his name on it and gave him a call.”
"I was like, hell yeah, let's go. Like, I'm ready, like, here we go," he said about his initial phone call with the Ravens.
Beerntsen spent his first six years of college at South Dakota State, where he won two FCS national titles.
Last year, for his final season, he transferred to Northwestern.
"It's always good to go into a new step system sometimes and just learn how different other places do things," Beerntsen said.
He noted that Big Ten competition wasn't too different from the top-tier FCS programs he faced at South Dakota State, but playing elite Big Ten teams with athletes who are "freaky athletic" helped him.
"You play Oregon, you play you play Michigan, you're gonna face some guys that are really testing you," he said.
Beerntsen is excited to get to rookie camp this weekend and hopes to make Baltimore’s roster this summer, blocking for some of the league's biggest stars.
"Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson, it's pretty, that's pretty unreal. Obviously, you gotta compete and make the team first," he said.
If the name Beerntsen sounds familiar, it's because he has a family history in Green Bay. His family owns Beerntsen Candies in downtown Green Bay, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year.
