Penn State center Juice Scruggs has been selected by the Houston Texans in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Scruggs was a player quarterback Sean Clifford described as the “keystone” of Penn State’s offense ahead of the 2022 season.
He played at Penn State for five seasons and started for the last two.
In 2021, he started all 13 games, playing mostly guard. He started 12 of Penn State’s 13 games in 2022, playing center and being an integral part of a team that finished 11-2 and ended its season by beating Utah for just its second-ever Rose Bowl win.
The week before spring practice, Scruggs suffered an injury that cost him his 2019 campaign.
It could have cost him a lot more.
Scruggs was seriously hurt in a single-car accident roughly a half-hour away from his hometown, Ashtabula, Ohio. The accident ejected Scruggs from the vehicle, broke his back and gave him a concussion. He spent a week in the hospital and another at home.
The accident could have ended his life, let alone his football career.
Scruggs knows how close everything was to being all over, and he never imagined that he’d play in a Rose Bowl Game.
“I couldn’t picture this,” Scruggs told NSN after the game. “If you had told me back in 2019 when I was in a brace that I would be a Rose Bowl champ my senior year, to go out on top, I would have told you, ‘yeah, right.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wjkiRvkHek&feature=youtu.be
Now, Scruggs is going to the NFL.
Scruggs is one of … former Penn State players to be drafted this weekend, joining …
Multiple Penn State offensive linemen have cited Scruggs’ influence in interviews this offseason.
Scruggs has the versatility to succeed at the next level, having played multiple OL positions.
