Penn State has become one of the top pipelines to the NFL over the past decade, especially on the defensive side of the football.
However, as the conversation around the 2026 NFL Draft starts to happen, one name is separating himself from the rest of the program, and it’s coming from the offensive line.
Mel Kiper Jr. of ESPN recently ranked Olaivavega Ioane as the 19th-best overall player in the 2026 draft class, an impressive ranking that shows he has a real chance to get selected in the first-round.
Kiper had a lot of good to say about him, and teams around the league are always interested in adding offensive line help when players are as good as Ioane.
“Ioane drives defensive tackles off the ball and sustains his blocks well. He can get to the second level and torque defenders out of the way. And he's incredibly agile at left guard for his size. Ioane had 32 career starts and gave up only two sacks over that time -- both in 2023,” he wrote.
While it's obviously always a good thing to have players selected in the first round of the NFL draft for Penn State and other programs around the country, I also think it's fair to mention that he could be the only one selected in the first-round of this draft because of how poorly Penn State played a year ago. I understand that players still get evaluated differently than wins or losses, but it was a very ugly season for Penn State, and many players' draft stock fell.
Because of that, I think Ioane will be the only Penn State player selected in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
That’s not a knock on the rest of the roster, but more so just the facts based on what many are saying. It's a bit concerning that other players have fallen off the way they have in terms of draft stock, as Penn State was expected to have many players potentially in that mix, but things aren't looking very good right now.
We always have to leave open the possibility of things changing, but the early signs aren’t great.