Northwestern Wildcats football fans knew Caleb Tiernan was going to be drafted, but we didn’t know Evan Beernsten would! Both guys will continue wearing purple as each of them went to one of the two NFL teams that features this distinctive color.
Tiernan went in the third round, with the No. 97 pick, to the Minnesota Vikings.
Beerntsen was taken in the seventh round, with the No. 253 pick, by the Baltimore Ravens. Beernsten, who was just four picks away from the famed “Mr. Irrelevant” moniker, actually has a pretty good chance of making a decent impact with his new team.
He is an interior lineman, and that position group was the Ravens biggest weakness entering this draft.
Their guards were among the worst in the league last year, and center Tyler Linderbaum has left for Las Vegas.
Beernsten will compete for a gig that rounds out the depth chart at this position. He is the 189th Northwestern player to be selected in the NFL Draft; Tiernan was the 188th.
So they’re getting all the more closer to 200!
Beernsten was only at Northwestern for one season, with graduate student classification, after spending six years at South Dakota State.
So yes, he’s “old” as he’ll turn 26 in September.
He’s also seasoned and accomplished, as he won two FCS national championships with the Jackrabbits.
Evan Beernsten did not allow a sack, or a QB hit all season long. He was also the starting right guard for a Wildcats team that averaged 160.2 rushing yards per game (8th in the Big Ten and 65th in the nation).
While that might seem a bit just better than mid, consider how NU improved their rushing attacked by 62 yards per game over the previous season. The Appleton, WI native earned a 80.2 PFF grade this past season, which ranked 11th in the nation among guards and fourth among Big Ten guards.
Tiernan is a guy you already know a lot more about, as he’s been considered a top level draft prospect pretty much his whole college career.
He’s a Detroit metropolitan area native who chose NU over the local traditional powerhouse Michigan.
He also became the third NU offensive tackle (Rashawn Slater, 13th overall, L.A. Chargers, 2021 and Peter Skoronski, Tennessee Titans, 11th overall, 2023) to get drafted in the past 10 years. This past season he was named to the national Pro Football Focus Team of the Week against Western Illinois and Oregon.
Tiernan also allowed zero sacks in eight of nine conference games in 2025.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, Ratings and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.