There aren’t very many spots on Penn State’s defense where they don’t have to address departures, but safety is one of them.
[autotag]Jaylen Reed[/autotag] and [autotag]KJ Winston[/autotag] were the two starters on last year’s team who didn’t rotate out very often and that’s expected to be similar this season as well.
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be opportunities for others to find themselves on the field in those spots based on different points of the game, or worst case scenario due to injuries.
Having backups ready to contribute is paramount for elite programs across the country and it seems like the Nittany Lions have someone ready to step into that role.
According to Tyler Donohue of 247Sports, [autotag]Zakee Wheatley[/autotag] has impressed during spring practices after being in third year of his transition from cornerback to safety with [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] saying “the light’s gone on for him” and he’s had “by far” his best offseason workouts (subscription required).
An interesting thing for Penn State’s secondary will be how it operates under new defensive coordinator [autotag]Tom Allen[/autotag] who is looking to implement a “Lion” role that has one of their safeties closer to the line of scrimmage.
Early comments from Allen suggest that Reed could be getting the majority of the snaps at the “Lion” position.
That could put Wheatley into deep coverage where he has excelled during practice.
In fact, Donohue notes that no player has come away with more takeaways than Wheatley.
Because of the unknown, it should be expected that the redshirt junior sees much more playing time this season after only logging around 250 snaps last year.