Mississippi State Football: Top 3 prospects for 2021 NFL Draft

What a career it’s been for KJ Costello. The senior quarterback decided to use his grad transfer and final year of eligibility to join Mississippi State and Mike Leach.

Would he have chosen the Bulldogs if Joe Moorhead was still in charge? Probably not because he’s not exactly known as a quarterback king like Leach. In fact, Leach is responsible for turning two straight no-name gunslingers into NFL players in Gardner Minshew and Anthony Gordon. They won’t be the last quarterbacks to play for Leach to head to the NFL.

Costello might be the most polished quarterback Leach has ever inherited and he just needs the right coach to let him loose. This is the perfect situation for him and there’s talk that he could go as early as the first round in the 2021 NFL Draft and honestly, I can see it.

The former Stanford gunslinger had a decent first season, passing for 1,573 yards and 14 touchdowns with a 59 percent completion rate in 2017. He then broke out in his second year, passing for 3,540 yards and 29 touchdowns, improving his completion rate by six percent.

Unfortunately, an injury-riddled 2019 season caused him to play in just five games, passing for 1,038 yards and six touchdowns. He has the potential to be more of that 3,500-yard guy.

Leach is going to unleash the beast that is Costello in 2020.