On Tuesday, a day before the hard deadline to declare for the 2025 NFL draft, Penn State redshirt super senior right guard Sal Wormley entered his name. Wormley expended his final year of eligibility in 2024 after arriving in Happy Valley in 2019, and though the Nittany Lions had a veteran group up front, Wormley is the only departure from the 2024 starting group.
Wormley started all 16 games at right guard, playing 807 snaps and only allowing 14 pressures and two sacks. Across his career in Happy Valley, the 6-foot-3 327-pound interior offensive lineman played 2,386 total snaps, and all but 12 came at right guard. In 2024, Wormley started alongside senior center Nick Dawkins, redshirt freshman right tackle Anthony Donkoh, redshirt sophomore left guard Olaivavega Ioane, and junior left tackle Drew Shelton, and is the only member of that group not returning.
Wormley joins safeties Kevin Winston Jr. and Jaylen Reed, cornerback Jalen Kimber, defensive end Abdul Carter, defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas, linebacker Kobe King, and tight end Tyler Warren as the eighth Nittany Lion in the 2025 draft. He is likely to be a Day 3 selection.
Beyond rising sophomore Cooper Cousins, who played 152 snaps across 15 games, head coach James Franklin also added veteran guard TJ Shanahan in the transfer portal from Texas A&M this offseason. With Dawkins returning for his sixth year and second as the program’s starting center, Cousins, the presumptive center of the future will need to battle Shanahan for playing time. That additional depth is a great problem for Franklin and offensive line coach Phil Trautwein to have.
The right guard situation will be similar to Penn State’s right tackle battle ahead last fall between Donkoh and veteran transfer Nolan Rucci. Donkoh won the job, but Rucci took over late in the year after Donkoh suffered a season-ending knee injury and played exceptionally well throughout the College Football Playoff.