Penn State Football: will the Nittany Lions get better or get worse at each position on defense?

Defensive End

Last season, the Nittany Lions had just 27 sacks as a team (tied for 74th in the country and 8th in the Big Ten). With departures for the NFL, the Nittany Lions lose over half of that sack production – 15 total sacks to be exact. Derrick Tangelo had a pair of sacks, Ellis Brooks had one, Brandon Smith had two, Jesse Luketa had a half a sack on the season, and Arnold Ebiketie led the way with 9.5 sacks.

On top of that, they only return four total sacks from the defensive end position from a year ago; one by Nick Tarburton and three by Smith Vilbert.

So somewhere, Penn State Football needs to find some production at defensive end and find someone who can get pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

There are three names that, where they go, this unit will follow.

Adisa Isaac returns from injury, Dameioun Robinson arrives from Maryland via the transfer portal, and former five-star Dani Dennis Sutton figures to be a key contributor from day one. If each member of that trio can match expectations, or really even two of the three, Penn State’s defensive end unit can be scary good.

However, there are still a lot of ‘what ifs’ and question marks surrounding the unit.

Can Isaac stay healty?

What if it takes Dennis-Sutton some time to adjust to the college game?

Defensive end will be the biggest x-factor of this defense, a ‘swing-position’, if you will. It will either be a dominant unit that can take over games, which – paired with the Nittany Lions’ outstanding secondary – would be a nightmare for opposing offenses to try to pass against. Or defensive end will turn out to be a liability for this team and become something that the opposition can and will exploit.

With so many unanswered questions, and needing to replace a second rounder in Ebiketie, it seems as if the defensive end unit could take a step back in 2022 – though they very well could prove me wrong, and hopefully they do.