Penn State Draft Watchlist
- Sports Illustrated ranked Penn State players projected for the 2026 NFL Draft, highlighting several likely picks. - SI noted two 2022 classmates were already drafted: Carter in the first round and Winston in the third. - The piece says potentially seven more Nittany Lions could be selected in 2026, increasing roster turnover. (si.com)
Penn State could send as many as seven more players to the 2026 National Football League draft, with guard Olaivavega Ioane at the top of Sports Illustrated’s latest watchlist. (si.com) Sports Illustrated ranked Ioane No. 1 among Penn State’s 2026 draft prospects and called the 6-foot-4, 320-pound lineman a projected first-round pick. The same list slotted defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton second with a projected third-round grade. (si.com) The watchlist grows out of Penn State’s 2022 recruiting class, which 247Sports Composite ranked sixth nationally and which included Drew Allar, Nicholas Singleton, Dennis-Sutton, Kaytron Allen and Ioane. Sports Illustrated wrote that two players from that class were already drafted in 2025: Abdul Carter in the first round and Kevin Winston Jr. in the third. (si.com) Those 2025 results were part of another heavy draft year for the program. Penn State had five players selected in the 2025 draft, including Carter at No. 3 overall, Tyler Warren at No. 14 overall and Winston at No. 82. (psu.edu) (giants.com) (gopsusports.com) Penn State’s draft pipeline has been unusually steady. The school said the 2025 draft made it eight straight drafts with at least five picks, and Penn State joined Alabama and Georgia as the only Football Bowl Subdivision programs to hit that mark over that span. (psu.edu) The 2026 class matters because several of Penn State’s biggest returning names stayed long enough to build even larger résumés. In April 2025, Sports Illustrated projected Allar and Singleton as first-round candidates for 2026 after both returned to school instead of entering the 2025 draft. (si.com) Allar entered his senior season as a 6-foot-5, 235-pound quarterback and Penn State’s career leader in completion percentage at 63.2%. His official bio also listed 61 career touchdown passes, 7,402 passing yards and 26 wins as a starter. (gopsusports.com) Singleton and Allen gave Penn State two veteran backs with milestone production. Penn State’s official records page listed Singleton with 3,461 rushing yards and 45 rushing touchdowns, while Allen had 1,303 rushing yards in 2025 and, with Singleton, became part of the first Penn State backfield in which two teammates reached 3,000 career rushing yards at the same time. (gopsusports.com 1) (gopsusports.com 2) Dennis-Sutton and Ioane also arrived at the draft conversation with major postseason honors. Penn State’s official bios listed Dennis-Sutton as a 2025 third-team All-Big Ten selection and Ioane as a first-team All-American by CBS Sports and On3, plus a first-team All-Big Ten pick by the media. (gopsusports.com 1) (gopsusports.com 2) If Sports Illustrated’s seven-player estimate holds, the next draft would extend a run that has already reshaped Penn State’s roster year after year. It would also turn one 2022 recruiting class into one of the program’s deepest National Football League feeders in recent memory. (si.com)
