Pair of former Penn State players labeled as 'best value' picks in the 2026 NFL Draft: Newsstand

Penn State news, notes, and updates for May 12 include a review of the NFL Draft with a Nittany Lions flavor, headlines of the day, and more.

Nick Baumgardner of The Athletic used colleague Dane Brugler’s player rankings from ‘The Beast’ draft guide, plus his own opinion, to put together a list of picks that he thought were steals. Two Penn State alums, defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton and safety Zakee Wheatley, made the cut. The former went at No. 120 to Green Bay, which is 60 spots below his No. 60 ranking in The Beast. The latter went at No. 151 to the Carolina Panthers despite being ranked No. 78.

“Dennis-Sutton is still more a collection of tools than a polished product, but those tools are pretty outstanding,” Baumgarnder writes. “The 6-foot-6, 256-pounder (with 33 1/2-inch arms) ran a 4.63 40 and posted a 39 1/2-inch vertical jump and 10-11 broad jump. Athletically, he shows some Aidan Hutchinson-like flashes. We’ll see about the rest, though.

“A jumbo safety who is quicker than fast, Wheatley (6-3, 203) has the size to be a potential box hybrid and the body fluidity to play either safety spot in the NFL — despite having less-than-desirable speed. If he can become a more consistent tackler, Wheatley could be a real difference-maker.”

You can read the full story here.

Both players went through their first rookie minicamps this past weekend.

The rest of today’s newsstand is below.

Penn State headlines of the day

Penn State retained these defenders – now they’re poised for bigger roles: Bauer, BWI

QB Will Wood talks Penn State: ‘They are really about playing the best guy’: Fitz, BWI

Could Penn State wrestling land a transfer portal addition after all?: Pickel, BWI

Penn State OC Taylor Mouser on Matt Campbell’s offensive philosophy: Players, Formations, Plays: Carr, BWI

Quote of the day

“I mean, he’s with us offensively. It doesn’t matter if I was OC or Scheelhaase or Manning, he game plans and does everything with us. So that is the strategy within it. Like everybody knows who the players are.”

“We’re constantly ranking ‘Who are our top 11 guys?’ Who are the best players on our team? These are the guys that we’re going to have to build the offense around and get involved. And then throughout the game plan week, like, what formations are we going to use to highlight those guys? And then within those formations, like, what are the plays?”

PSU OC Taylor Mouser on how head coach Matt Campbell helps with the game planning process.