Penn State has sent nine players to the NFL Scouting Combine ahead of the 2026 draft in April: Drew Allar, Kaytron Allen, Nicholas Singleton, Khalil Dinkins, Olaivavega Ioane, Drew Shelton, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Zane Durant, and Zakee Wheatley.Â
Every one of those players has a chance to improve their draft stock after a final season that did not go to plan in Happy Valley, but three are under the most pressure with the chance of major movement either up or down draft boards this week.Â
Complete guide to the 2026 NFL combine: How to watch, drills, and player schedules
Zane Durant was No. 8 on Bruce Feldman’s Freak’s List ahead of the 2025 college football season for his 21.1 miles per hour top speed at 6-foot-1, 290 pounds, his 4.43 shuttle time, a 9-10 broad jump, 30 ½ inch vertical, and 425-pound bench press.Â
While he’s not necessarily undersized, Durant isn’t a monster on the interior defensive line, so he’ll need to have impressive testing numbers at the combine to solidify his place in the draft after a year with 4.0 sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss. Durant's on-field workouts will take place on Thursday with the rest of the defensive linemen.Â
2. Drew Allar, QB
Allar missed the second half of his senior season at Penn State, but he still has plenty of game film for NFL evaluators to sift through. Considering Allar made 35 starts at Penn State, his throwing session at the combine probably won’t change many minds in NFL front offices, but decision makers will surely want to see him looking 100 percent after his season-ending injury in 2025.Â
Allar has protoypical size, and a big arm. He’s the type of quarterback built to thrive in a setting like the combine, and if he shows out, he could be QB3 behind Fernando Mendoza and Ty Simpson and a Day 2 selection. Especially considering that coming into the season, he was viewed as a likely first-round pick in the 2026 draft.Â
Maybe even more important than the throwing session for Allar, who struggled to be consistently accurate throughout his collegiate career, is the meetings with NFL front offices. Allar may need to impress on the chalk board even more than anything he does on the field.
In some sense, with a shockingly thin running back class, it would be difficult for Kaytron Allen to fall too far in this year’s NFL Draft. Still, the Nittany Lions’ all-time leading rusher has quite a bit of pressure to test well in Indianapolis when running backs take the field on Saturday.Â
At 5-foot-11, 220 pounds, Allen is not a freakish athlete. He thrives on his vision, toughness, and physicality, which don’t necessarily translate to running a 40-yard dash or a broad jump. If he tests well, Allen could be RB2 behind Jeremiyah Love. If he tests poorly, Allen could fall to Day 3 and even land behind his injured teammate, Nicholas Singleton, who won’t be participating in on-field drills in Indy.