Penn State Football: Early 2019 Position Preview for Defensive Line

Penn State football’s defensive line is set up for dominance in 2019. The team returns the majority of its key players up front.

A unit that’s not quite gotten its due as an elite defense over the last few years is Penn State football. Regularly the Nittany Lions churn out productive, top-tier defenses, but a major reason that the media love isn’t there for them is the heavily rotational approach, especially on the defensive line.

Defensive line coach Sean Spencer opts to play a multitude of players up front like most teams, but the depth this line has allows him to go sometimes three-deep at certain positions. The D-Line did lose two key stars to the NFL Draft in Shareef Miller and Kevin Givens. There are two starters back and plenty of contributors beyond that.

First of all, the best player on the D-Line last year, sophomore Yetur Gross-Matos, returns to the Lions. He dropped some unreal numbers in his first year as a starter, recording 54 tackles, 20 for loss and eight sacks.

Along with Gross-Matos, starting defensive tackle Robert Windsor deliver some NFL-level production and size. Both are prototypical size up front with Gross Matos (6-foot-5, 260 pounds) and Windsor (6-foot-4, 300 pounds). They’ve combined for more than 150 tackles, 19 sacks and 36 tackles for loss. A hellacious tandem that’s bound to dominate against the run and pass next year.

I touched on the limitless possibilities of this lineup in a story last month. There are seven players that are back that saw some level of reps in 2018. The combination of defensive ends Shaka Toney, Shane Simmons, Daniel Joseph and Jayson Oweh and defensive tackles PJ Mustipher, Antonio Shelton and CJ Thorpe.

The former of that group has all the tools with speed, power, rushing the passer or stopping the run. The foursome of ends has 101 career tackles, 23.5 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks. Where any of those guys end up in the rotation they’re going to produce at a high level. Toney is the likeliest candidate to replace Miller. He’s a speed rusher that can get after opposing tackles, making 40 tackles, 13 for loss, 8.5 sacks and forcing three fumbles in his first two seasons.

In addition to all those ends, the latter of the aforementioned seven reserves come back with a year of experience on the interior of the D-Line. They all line up well-prepared to stop the run and with 33 combined tackles last year, they’re going to replace Givens well in the center.

Yesterday, I previewed what’s expected to be a relentless, hyper athletic linebacking corp for the Penn State team. Check out the back half Penn State football’s front seven for what’s expected to be a fantastic defense for the Nittany Lions.