Penn State football mock draft: Stock up/down after the Senior Bowl

The week before the Super Bowl used to be about showcasing the current stars in the NFL, but now it’s about catching a glimpse of the league’s future. The Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile Alabama took center stage in the football world on Saturday, and earlier in the week, the East-West Shrine Bowl kicked off the pre-draft All-Star games on Thursday. 

Four Nittany Lions got the invite to Mobile, Theo Johnson, Adisa Isaac, Kalen King, and Johnny Dixon, while Caedan Wallace, Hunter Nourzad, Curtis Jacobs, and Daequan Hardy were in Frisco, Texas for the Shrine Bowl. 

Penn State’s most notable draft prospects, Olu Fashanu and Chop Robinson opted to sit out of the all-star games in preparation for the NFL Draft Combine. 

Of the eight Nittany Lions that participated this past week, a few helped their draft stock, while one continues to watch his stock fall. So, with the 2024 NFL draft still a few months away, let’s do our first Penn State mock draft to see where these players could end up after the first major pre-draft event. 

Fashanu would have been a top 10 pick had he come out in the 2023 NFL Draft, so with another stellar year on his resume, teams will have no reservations about grabbing him early. The Titans took a Big Ten offensive tackle last year, but Peter Skoronski had to kick into guard because of his short arms. 

Fashanu will easily stick at left tackle in the NFL and Tennessee will have an elite left side of the offensive line with Skoronski and Fashau in back-to-back drafts. The other option at tackle is Joe Alt, who could be taken in this spot, but Fashanu won’t fall any further than No. 10 to the New York Jets. 

Chop Robinson sat out of the all-star games because he apparently felt his draft stock was solidified, but as scouts and “draft gurus” dig into the tape from last season, Robinson has continued to slide towards the back end of the first round. 

The 6-foot-3 250 pound edge rusher has too much upside to drop out of round one, but now, I’m expecting him to drop to a spot like Detroit. There is even a chance that Robinson isn’t the first Penn State edge rusher to go in this draft. 

Detroit needs another pass-rusher to pair with Aidan Hutchinson, and a long and twitchy rusher like Robinson could be the perfect compliment. Hutchinson is known for his motor and production, but has the measurables and in Dan Campbell’s culture could turn into a superstar. 

One of the stars of the week in Mobile, Isaac routined dominated offensive linemen in practices and the game on Saturday. 

Isaac outpaced Robinson in terms of sacks and pressures in 2023, but his pass-rush win rate of 13.0% lagged behind Robinson’s 20.9%. Considering Robinson is over a year younger with better physical traits, he’ll likely be taken before Isaac, but if Isaac has elite testing numbers at the combine then he could sneak into the first round and overtake his teammate. 

The Falcons are a great fit for Isaac with a new defensive-minded head coach in Raheem Morris. Back in 2022, Atlanta selected former Nittany Lion Arnold Ebiketie with the sixth pick of the second round, but the team is still searching for an elite pass-rusher. 

Joe Burrow needs more weapons, especially if Tee Higgins leaves in free agency, as he’s expected to. The Bengals could go with a wide receiver, or take the tight end who impressed at the Senior Bowl. 

Johnson looked good in practice against high-level competition and has the athletic traits to rise up draft boards after the combine. The middle of the second round might be early for a player who only caught 34 passes for 341 yards and seven touchdowns last season, but teams may overlook his lack of production for his physical upside. 

Playing alongside another talented tight end in Tyler Warren and stuck on the 75th ranked passing offense in the country, Johnson’s lack of eye-popping stats can be easily explained away. 

If Johnson runs a great time in the 40-yard dash next month then he could start to get second-round buzz. This is probably his absolute ceiling, but after looking great at the Senior Bowl, he deserves consideration. 

I’m not sure that Detroit would want to take multiple players off Penn State’s defense, but the Lions need help on that side of the ball and the Nittany Lions had the best unit in the country. 

King came into 2023 as a projected first-round pick, but after a rough outing against Marvin Harrison Jr. and Ohio State his stock started to fall. In all, King allowed 25 receptions on 41 targets with no intercetpions and one pass breakup. He was far from a disaster, but he was a lot worse than expected. 

At 5-foot-11 190 pounds, King doesn’t have the impressive stature that propelled Joey Porter Jr. to the top of the second round in the 2023 NFL draft, so his lack of production is even more detrimental that it would be to a more physically gifted player. 

King’s stock was falling coming into the Senior Bowl, but after routinely losing reps to bigger players like Tez Walker from North Carolina and struggling to play the ball, he could drop out of Day 2. 

Johnny Dixon had an unremarkable Senior Bowl after suffering an injury in practice. Dixon didn’t get to affect his stock much in Mobile, so the combine will be even more crucial for King’s counterpart. 

Like with Isaac and Robinson, there is a chance that Dixon, who is less-highly touted, is taken over the underclassmen whose stock continues to fall. Dixon was steady opposite King last season and with more consistent film over his 1,839 collegiate snaps, he could be seen as a more reliable selection. 

The Commanders had many weaknesses on defense, but cornerback was certainly one of them. Adam Peters, the new GM in Washington, is from was in the front office in San Franciscon last offseason when the 49ers grabbed Ji’Ayir Brown, who is about to start in the Super Bowl. 

Entering the draft process, Nourzad looked like a player who would likely go undrafted and would be lucky to be picked up by a team as an undrafted free agent. The Cornell transfer allowed a team-high 16 pressures on Drew Allar last season, however, his two years of starting experience in the Big Ten will be appealing for a team in search of offensive line depth. 

Nourzad also impressed in Frisco at the Shrine Bowl. He showed off some real athleticism in the screen game like on this play in practice: 

Pass protection is going to be a question for Nourzad at the NFL level, but if he could hold his own in Frisco and was smart enough to go to Cornell, team’s will value him in the later round. 

Since Andy Weidl came over to Pittsburgh from Philadelphia to serve as Omar Khan’s right hand man, the Steelers have prioritized offensive line depth, specifically on the interior. I could see the Steelers grabbing two or three offensive linemen in the draft and Nourzad could be one of them. 

Curtis Jacobs is a player that is on the fringe of the seventh round and the Shrine Bowl didn’t do much to change that. He finished 2023 with 50 tackles, two forced fumbles, and 2.5 sacks, but he’ll need to test well at the combine to win over scouts and general managers. 

At 6-foot-1 238-pounds Jacobs profiles as a fast sideline-to-sideline linebacker, so his 40 and shuttle time will be crucial to determine if he’s draftable or a UDFA. I’ll bank on the athleticism that made him a five-star high school recruit in 2020 shining through in the draft process. 

No team values linebackers like the Baltimore Ravens, who had the best defense in the NFL in 2024. Baltimore built the defense around first-round linebacker Patrick Queen and Roquan Smith, who they traded a second-round pick for in 2022. 

Queen is likely to leave in free agency this offseason, and if he does, the Ravens will need an anthetlic depth piece to develop. How about one from Owings Mills Maryland. 

UDFA: Caedan Wallace OT, Daequan Hardy CB, Trey Potts RB, Alex Felkins K