Sunday Column: Former Lions Showing the Journey to the League isn’t Always Linear

They can’t all be Saquon Barkley.

Nick Scott figured that out during his second season at Penn State, when he switched from running back to safety. Six years later, the seventh-round draft choice will start for the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl, the latest – but probably not the last – in a decent-sized line of Nittany Lions who took non-traditional journeys to productive NFL careers.

There might have been something in the water in that 2014 recruiting class, James Franklin’s first at Penn State. Sure, there were stars then who remain stars now – Chris Godwin, Mike Gesicki – but there were many more players in that class who had to take a leap of faith, a huge swallow of pride or a hard look at the path they thought they were on for their paths to continue.

Scott’s Rams teammate, linebacker Troy Reeder, seemed destined to add to the legacy of Linebacker U after a redshirt freshman season that put him on the Big Ten’s All-Freshman team. And then he transferred – and this was before transferring was cool – to … Delaware. A three-time All-CAA selection, he joined the Rams as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2019 and has started 30 games – including each of the team’s last five playoff appearances – over the last three seasons.

Troy Apke switched from wide receiver to defensive back as a freshman and wound up a fourth-round draft choice by Washington in 2018. Marcus Allen, a stud safety at Penn State who made one of the biggest special teams plays in program history, switched to linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers in his third season. Amari Oruwariye was an afterthought at Penn State during his first three years in the program, but a breakout 2016 season set him on a trajectory that saw him record six interceptions in just 14 games for the Detroit Lions this fall. One of those interceptions set up a touchdown by his former Nittany Lions teammate, Jason Cabinda, who has gone from undrafted linebacker to a fullback/tight end hybrid who embodies head coach Dan Campbell’s hard-nosed, knee-chewing mindset.

Trace McSorley? The one kid in the class who was supposed to be a college defensive back committed to the only school who saw him as a quarterback and left the program with a fistful of offensive records before spending two seasons as Lamar Jackson’s backup in Baltimore.

Again, they weren’t the first former Nittany Lions to carve out NFL success at a new position. Michael Robinson went from Swiss Army knife to conference offensive player of the year at quarterback to NFL fullback. Derek/Cameron Wake changed his name and his position, going from college linebacker to one of the NFL’s best edge rushers.

More recently, wide receiver Juwan Johnson, after transferring to Oregon, switched to tight end and became a useful weapon for an undermanned New Orleans Saints offense this season. Dan Chisena, known as much for his track accomplishments as for being a wide receiver for the Nittany Lions, made the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted special teamer in 2020. And Micah Parsons would have been the league’s best rookie linebacker in 2021, but depth issues prompted the Dallas Cowboys to move their first-round choice to defensive end, where he became the best rookie edge rusher, too.

Jesse Luketa, one of eight Nittany Lions invited to the NFL Combine, seems likely to continue the trend. A linebacker for his first three seasons, the Ottawa native moved to edge rusher for large chunks of this season, when he earned all-Big Ten third-team honors, then turned more than a few scouts’ heads at the Senior Bowl, showing up mountainous Minnesota tackle Daniel Faalele in practice and then recording a strip sack in the game.

What do all these players have in common, besides playing for both Penn State and at least one NFL team? Well, talent, for one, but that talent, in many of these cases, didn’t necessarily lend itself to a particular position, so these players found a way to apply that talent to another position. And yes, many of these players caught the attention of scouts because of a measurable – an impressive 40 time or bench press performance at the combine or Pro Day – but just as often, they showed scouts or coaches something, either in their game film or during interviews, that showed them the stuff that’s harder to measure but is often the difference between draft busts and long-term professionals – intelligence, resilience, willingness and ability to learn a new position.

If you could put Barkleys and Parsonses at every position, you’d win, and win big, at the college and pro levels. But – even if your name is Nick Saban – you can’t. So you need to find the guys who might or might not have the same type of athleticism but don’t care about the position they play, just about excelling at whatever position they’re told to play, to fill out your roster. The Rams got to the Super Bowl because Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey are generational players, and because they mortgaged their future for vets like Matthew Stafford and Von Miller. But they’re also about to play for a world championship because guys like Nick Scott and Troy Reeder played less flashy but just-as-valuable roles. And, as has been the case with so many other former Nittany Lions who have and are playing professionally today, those ventures off their early paths were journeys well spent.