Sunday Column: By Penn State Standards This Year’s ‘Freak Show’ Was Relatively Tame, But That Doesn’t Mean It Wasn’t A Productive Trip To Indy

The NFL Combine is where the (apologies to Rick James) superfreak athletes of college football separate themselves from the mere everyday freaks, where (apologies to Eric Roberts) the best of the best can go from a fringe first-rounder to a top-10 pick, from a fringe draftee to a second-day selection, and earn themselves a good deal of money in the process.

Penn State has had its fair share of superfreak performances at the combine over the years, from Parsons to Barkley to… Apke and from dozens of other players who may not have made the same type of headlines but, whether it was with an impressive jump or a surprising 40 time, improved their stock during the week.

It’s been a different story for the seven Nittany Lions at this year’s combine. None of them would have qualified as true athletic freaks going in, and they largely did very little to change that with their respective performances.

P.J. Mustipher, the big defensive tackle who turned in a quiet senior season while coming off a serious injury, came up with underwhelming numbers across the board, including a 5.41-second 40 that was last among interior d-linemen and a 27.5-inch vertical. Safety Ji’Ayir Brown, who played one of the finest all-around seasons by a Penn State defensive back in recent memory, was similarly disappointing, with a 4.65 40 and a 32.5 vert.

Wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley ran a meh 4.6, while Parker Washington, who missed the final three games of the season with an injury, did not perform in drills while continuing his recovery. Brenton Strange, who surprised a few people by deciding to forego his final season, posted a good-not-great 4.7 40 while holding his own in drills against a deep and talented tight end group. (Offensive lineman Juice Scruggs was up for his drills after this column was published).

Meanwhile, cornerback Joey Porter Jr., the most likely Nittany Lion to hear his name called first in April’s draft, was merely solid, with an official 4.46 40, a 35-inch vertical and a 10-9 broad jump, all numbers that left him firmly in the middle of the cornerback pack. Porter is still likely to be a first-round selection, because of both his nearly-81-inch wingspan and because of the toughness and coverage skills he showed on tape.

Those last two words – on tape – are what should keep Penn State’s 2023 combine class hopeful about the future despite their unimpressive results in Indy. Porter isn’t going to be Darrell Green, chasing down receivers from across the field, but if he gets with a team that likes to play press coverage, could find himself having a long and productive career.

Does Brown have the frame and explosiveness NFL teams want to see from a safety? Probably not. But his tape shows a player who can play in the box, make tackles in the backfield, anticipate and snare errant throws over the middle, and impact the game on special teams as well as on defense. He won’t be a Day 1 or even Day 2 pick and might not ever make a Pro Bowl roster (even if half the league seems to wind up on one these days), but it’s not hard to envision him carving out a blue-collar career like the one Adrian Amos has enjoyed.

Washington is another example, albeit one who, thanks to the time he missed and the, um, inconsistency of his quarterback, doesn’t have the same kind of tape to fall back on as Brown or Porter. He’s built more like a running back than a college receiver, let alone an NFL receiver, but he’s both unafraid and able to make the tough catches in traffic, which (as we saw again during drills Saturday) is a skill not always possessed by many first-round picks over the years.

Tinsley’s ability to come in and quickly grasp Mike Yurcich’s system is a sign to pro teams that he’ll be able to pick things up as a rookie. Strange can point to his breakout 2022 season as a sign he is a player who still hasn’t reached his ceiling. Mustipher’s leadership was a huge factor for Penn State’s defense in both of the last two seasons.

The part of the combine that doesn’t (for what are probably good reasons) get the same type of TV coverage or attention that the 40 runs or even the positional drills get is the time that prospects get to spend with team representatives. This is where they show off their football acumen, their competitive instinct, and how they might fit into a locker room. Time has taught us that the physical qualifications are far more likely to get you in the door than your Wonderlic score or how quickly you can grasp the playbook, but in situations where ability is roughly equal, the guys who made a positive rather than a negative impression can get a small leg up. None of the seven Nittany Lions at this combine carried any sort of baggage; their college success was built on working hard in practice and in the film room to maximize their talents. It’s hard to imagine they didn’t help themselves in the interview sessions this week.

And sometimes that’s all you need — to impress one team with an answer to a hard question. The physical drills are how the superfreaks separate themselves, but most scouts know all about them well before the combine anyway. The combine is as much about searching for red flags and finding players who might help your team in later rounds of the draft and the back end of your roster as it is about seeing if the fast first-rounder from the SEC team is faster than the fast first-rounder from the Pac 12 team.

Penn State will continue to send its share of freaks to this event in the years to come, including Olu Fashanu and Abdul Carter and Nick Singleton and maybe a few current Nittany Lions who haven’t quite distinguished themselves yet. But, even if Porter is the only one who gets a call on the first night of the 2023 draft, don’t be surprised to see a few of those other six Lions still collecting NFL paychecks seven or eight years from now.