Penn State had more 2022 NFL draft picks than any Big Ten team

Penn State had the most players from the Big Ten drafted in the 2022 NFL draft

Penn State may not have had as many draft picks in the 2022 NFL draft as the reigning national champions from Georgia (nobody did), but the Nittany Lions did deliver on some of the draft expectations for this most recent draft class. Penn State ended the draft with eight players selected by NFL teams, which was more than any Big Ten team had this season.

Penn State’s eight draft picks included;

  • [autotag]Jahan Dotson[/autotag], WR (Washington)
  • [autotag]Arnold Ebiketie[/autotag], DE (Atlanta)
  • [autotag]Jaquan Brisker[/autotag], S (Chicago)
  • [autotag]Brandon Smith[/autotag], LB (Carolina)
  • [autotag]Jordan Stout[/autotag], P (Baltimore)
  • [autotag]Tariq Castro-Fields[/autotag], DB (San Francisco)
  • [autotag]Rasheed Walker[/autotag], OT (Green Bay)
  • [autotag]Jesse Luketa[/autotag], LB (Arizona)

Not a bad three-day result for Penn State, and a good way to follow up a solid draft class from 2021 as well. Penn State even had one more player drafted this year than perennial NFL factory Alabama, with the Crimson Tide ending the draft with seven players.

Penn State also had two more players drafted than Ohio State and three more than Michigan and Wisconsin.

Penn State head coach James Franklin has been on the receiving end of a good amount of criticism for not being able to win more at Penn State, and this latest draft result helps strengthen the case for the naysayers. Franklin has certainly established he can recruit among the best of them and send off that talent to the next level. But the last two seasons have failed to deliver the wins that teams with as much NFL talent as Penn State has had should be expected.

But, let’s not pretend Penn State is far removed from playing in New Years Six bowl games in three out of four years, a stretch that included a good amount of the recent NFL talent on the field or a part of the program. But it is fair to suggest Franklin and Penn State do need to redeem themselves a bit on the football field and in the win column in 2022.

But the bottom line is Franklin has another good recruiting sales pitch to offer with eight more players sent to the NFL via the draft, as his list of drafted players only continues to grow year by year.

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