When junior Kevin Winston Jr. went down with a season-ending knee injury in Week 2, it looked as though Penn State was losing its best defensive back. However, there was very little dropoff when senior Jaylen Reed moved back to play alongside Zakee Wheatley. Now, after Reed’s second-team All-Big Ten season in Happy Valley, he’s following Winston to the NFL, declaring for the draft on Sunday, a few days after the Nittany Lion’s season ended in the Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinals against Notre Dame.
Reed led Penn State in defensive snaps in 2024, playing 902, primarily as a deep safety. The senior began the year as the Nittany Lion’s nickel cornerback, a position that first-year defensive coordinator Tom Allen called the “lion” position. Reed posted nine tackles, two pass breakups, and a fumble recovery in Week 1 against West Virginia in the “lion” position and finished the season with a team-high 98 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 3 interceptions, and three pass breakups.
While Reed’s move back to safety stabilized that position without Winston, it did lead to a drop-off at nickel with Cam Miller and Zion Tracy proving to be coverage liabilities in the biggest games of the year, losses to Oregon and Notre Dame in the postseason. Miller will be entering the transfer portal while Reed, Winston, and outside cornerback Jalen Kimber have all declared for the draft.
The good news is that, despite what feels like a mass exodus, the Nittany Lions do still have some depth at the safety position. Wheatley will return for his final year of eligibility, and the redshirt junior was coming on very strong down the stretch. He was named the defensive MVP of the Fiesta Bowl with an interception and a fumble recovery and posted a team-high 16 tackles in the Orange Bowl with another pick and a sack, his first of the season.
After Winston’s injury true freshman Dejuan Lane also earned extra playing time, burning his redshirt in Year 1. He will compete for the starting role next to Wheatley in 2025 with King Mack, who on Sunday committed to Penn State after transferring away from Happy Valley to Alabama last offseason.
As for Reed, many early evaluations of the 2025 draft class have him ranked as a Day 2 prospect, likely to be drafted in the second or third round. Since James Franklin took over at Penn State, sick Nittany Lions safeties have been drafted into the NFL, Adrian Amos, Jordan Lucas, Marcus Allen, Troy Apke, Nick Scott, Jaquan Brisker, and Ji'Ayir Brown. Both Reed and Winston will be selected this spring.