Worthy was selected in the second round, No. 51 overall, by the Green Bay Packersand finished his rookie season with 11 tackles, including 2.5 sacks, and a forced fumble in 14 games.

The State News caught up with the former All-Americanto reflect on his first season in the NFL and the state of MSU football.

The State News: How do you feel when you look back on your rookie season?

Jerel Worthy: I’m content with it. But at the same time, I’m a competitor, so you always want to build and get better at your craft. This year I’m looking forward to having a much more productive year and just making sure I kind of just get back to the fundamentals and refine my techniques and everything. Get my knee injury together and stuff like that so I can be ready to go.

What was it like being drafted by the Packers, a team with so much history as well as recent success in the NFL? Is that something you think about as a player?

As an athlete, you just kind of embrace it. You always get guys being drafted to the traditional teams and they have a standard that they uphold. Just being a part of that tradition, just being a player on the team you just want to make sure that you continue to strive for excellence because a program, an organization like that, that’s all they do is breed excellence. It’s just my responsibility as a player and as an employee of that team just to make sure I come to work every day ready to work.

What was the biggest difference for you between the college and NFL level?

I think just experience, attention to detail. Techniques got a lot better, guys got a lot stronger. But at the same time, it’s just will power. You’ve got to want it more than the next man. And you may not be the most skilled or most talented or the most gifted, but … if you can outwork the guy that’s across from you, you can have a lot of success. I tried to do that with every game that I went out and played. I know that there are some areas that I lacked in as far as strength, or as far as knowledge of the game being a rookie, but over time it gets better, and my knowledge and my strength increases and I can become a dominant player in the league. So, I’m just waiting for that time to come.

How much do you stay in touch with the MSU football program and players here? And what did you see from them last year?

I saw a lot of games that we kind of let slip away; we were in them. Just trying to be on the brink of something excellent. Coach (Mark Dantonio) has instilled an incredibly strong program here, you know, kids want to come here,
kids want to play for him as well as his wonderful coaching staff. They just tried to do their best in going out there and just bringing it every week. They’re on the brink of something great. Even though we had a down season last year losing a lot of games by single digits, with those tough games comes a lot of growth and a lot of maturity. So I look forward to this new team coming up to be good.

What do you miss most about East Lansing and what’s the best thing you’ve bought so far?

I think the most important thing that I miss about school was just the people, the relationships that you’ve developed over the last four to five years. The players that you come in to work with early mornings, go to class with early mornings, and tutors and everything like that. You definitely miss the grind of trying to be successful. Even though you’re successful in the league and you have money, it’s nothing like getting up and striving to be something better than what you are. That’s one thing I definitely miss. I think probably the coolest thing that I’ve bought — I mean I got my home in Green Bay which I love, which is pretty nice — (is) probably just my car. I bought a truck that’s pretty nice, I kind of styled it up a little bit, you know, a nice little Range Rover.

The State News: How do you feel when you look back on your rookie season?

Jerel Worthy: I’m content with it. But at the same time, I’m a competitor, so you always want to build and get better at your craft. This year I’m looking forward to having a much more productive year and just making sure I kind of just get back to the fundamentals and refine my techniques and everything. Get my knee injury together and stuff like that so I can be ready to go.

What was it like being drafted by the Packers, a team with so much history as well as recent success in the NFL? Is that something you think about as a player?

As an athlete, you just kind of embrace it. You always get guys being drafted to the traditional teams and they have a standard that they uphold. Just being a part of that tradition, just being a player on the team you just want to make sure that you continue to strive for excellence because a program, an organization like that, that’s all they do is breed excellence. It’s just my responsibility as a player and as an employee of that team just to make sure I come to work every day ready to work.

What was the biggest difference for you between the college and NFL level?

I think just experience, attention to detail. Techniques got a lot better, guys got a lot stronger. But at the same time, it’s just will power. You’ve got to want it more than the next man. And you may not be the most skilled or most talented or the most gifted, but … if you can outwork the guy that’s across from you, you can have a lot of success. I tried to do that with every game that I went out and played. I know that there are some areas that I lacked in as far as strength, or as far as knowledge of the game being a rookie, but over time it gets better, and my knowledge and my strength increases and I can become a dominant player in the league. So, I’m just waiting for that time to come.

How much do you stay in touch with the MSU football program and players here? And what did you see from them last year?

I saw a lot of games that we kind of let slip away; we were in them. Just trying to be on the brink of something excellent. Coach (Mark Dantonio) has instilled an incredibly strong program here, you know, kids want to come here,
kids want to play for him as well as his wonderful coaching staff. They just tried to do their best in going out there and just bringing it every week. They’re on the brink of something great. Even though we had a down season last year losing a lot of games by single digits, with those tough games comes a lot of growth and a lot of maturity. So I look forward to this new team coming up to be good.

What do you miss most about East Lansing and what’s the best thing you’ve bought so far?

I think the most important thing that I miss about school was just the people, the relationships that you’ve developed over the last four to five years. The players that you come in to work with early mornings, go to class with early mornings, and tutors and everything like that. You definitely miss the grind of trying to be successful. Even though you’re successful in the league and you have money, it’s nothing like getting up and striving to be something better than what you are. That’s one thing I definitely miss. I think probably the coolest thing that I’ve bought — I mean I got my home in Green Bay which I love, which is pretty nice — (is) probably just my car. I bought a truck that’s pretty nice, I kind of styled it up a little bit, you know, a nice little Range Rover.