Former Penn State DT Signs With Saints

The Saints also placed Malcolm Roach and Marcus Maye on IR.

Mustipher had a difficult but, ultimately rewarding, career at Penn State. The low-point of it was probably in October 2021 when he suffered a season-ending injury on the turf of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium. The high-point was perhaps his last college game, when Penn State beat Utah to win the Rose Bowl and finish in the top ten.

At Penn State, Mustipher developed into one of the team’s emotional leaders. Another thing he was really good at was soaking up hasn’t quite shown up in the box score. In fact, it goes largely unnoticed unless you watch the film.

“He may not show up dramatically on the stat sheet,” coach James Franklin told reporters after a Wednesday practice,  “but as a football program, as coaches and players, and I think when you talk to NFL people and truly study the game and understand how highly he’s playing and doing his job, there’s a ton of value in it.”

“Guys like PJ that as coaches, as players … you have a ton of confidence in this guy’s’ going to do his job day in and day out,” Franklin said.

Having Mustipher in the fold made Franklin’s job much easier as with that trust comes responsibilities both on and off the field thanks in large part to his role as a captain last season.