The Penn State Nittany Lions land a couple of players in Nate Tice's top-50 NFL Draft rankings.
Penn State's 2025 season simply could not have been more of a disappointment than what it was last year.
When it rained, it poured, and it just kept getting worse and worse for the Nittany Lions. Who could have predicted that the peak of their season would be their white-out entrance against Oregon?
That was the tip of the mountain, and it was all downhill from there, unfortunately.
When seasons spiral like that, it is rare that there is any postseason recognition received, and further, every draft-eligible prospect loses a couple of spots.
That isn't totally the case for this year's Penn State squad.
Nate Tice of YahooSports and NFL Network released his top-50 ranking list, and there are a couple of Nittany Lions on the list.
The criteria of evaluation here are very straightforward. He didn't factor in scheme fit, or performances against the best teams on their schedule, or anything crazy. His list is just straight rankings from 1 through 50 with 10 honorable mentions.
The Lions land two on the list.
The first is guard Vega Ioane, who is going to land in a very good spot on draft night.
If a team is drafting a guard, that means that they are just a couple of pieces away from being a legitimate contender. Ioane is going to be the best interior lineman available because of his versatility.
Ioane is a player who has shown great athleticism in a big body and the ability to do different things up front. Penn State put him on the move; they put him in different spots on different sides, and he came through every single time. Along with his athleticism, Ioane has incredibly strong hands and has improved his contact balance over the last year.
Whoever gets their hands on Ioane is going to get a very strong player who immediately improves the interior of any line of scrimmage.
The other guy on the list is edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton. Dennis-Sutton is a big ball of clay that will be a nice addition in the second or third round. He stands at a lengthy 6-foot-6 but has to put on some weight as he is just 256 lbs.
He ranked as the 2nd most athletic defensive lineman available in the draft and is the seventh best edge prospect according to NFL NextGen Stats.
Penn State will likely have nine names called in the draft, with the majority of them coming late on day two and all day on day three.