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What Titans Are Getting in Kevin Winston Jr.

The safety position wasn’t necessarily considered an urgent need, but it was an area of the roster that needed some attention. Kevin Winston Jr. will provide that upgrade.
Kevin Sinclair|
Penn State's Kevin Winston Jr. (21) tackles Indiana's Jaylin Lucas during a kickoff return in the second half of an NCAA football game at Beaver Stadium Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, in State College, Pa. The Nittany Lions won, 33-24.
Penn State's Kevin Winston Jr. (21) tackles Indiana's Jaylin Lucas during a kickoff return in the second half of an NCAA football game at Beaver Stadium Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, in State College, Pa. The Nittany Lions won, 33-24. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Tennessee Titans

Selected in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft by the Tennessee Titans, Kevin Winston Jr. comes from a rich football background. 

The son of Kevin Winston Sr., who won a national championship during his four years on the football roster at James Madison, the soon-to-be pro safety grew up among the best talent in Washington, DC.

One of multiple private schools in the region that churn out scores of high-level college programs annually, Winston Jr. attended DeMatha Catholic outside of his hometown but located nearby. 

It’s the Hyattsville, Maryland school that produced former Alabama and NFL offensive linemen Arie Kouandjio and Cyrus Kouandjio (brothers). Spending the last seven season with the New England Patriots, Ja’Whaun Bentley played at DeMatha Catholic. And so did Heisman finalist, No. 2 overall draft pick out of Ohio State, and current San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Chase Young. 

Atlanta Falcons safety DeMarcco Hellams, Green Bay Packers running back MarShawn Lloyd, Los Angeles Rams cornerback Josh Wallace, Indianapolis Colts safety Nick Cross, Seattle Seahawks center Olu Oluwatimi, and recent Pittsburgh Steelers running back Anthony McFarlane (2020-2023) make up only a fraction of DeMatha Catholic graduates who play or played football professionally. The Maryland prep school’s basketball alumni list is equally impressive. 

Typically, heady prospects with four-star talent - which Winston Jr. was labeled by multiple networks - prove capable of playing as underclassmen at the college level. 

He’s long and fairly lean at 6-foot-2, 208 pounds, who showed a skill set typical of a free safety before developing into a significantly physical run stopper and punishing presence in the Nittany Lions' defense. 

Winston Jr. chose Penn State over additional scholarship offers from Boston College, Colorado, Louisville, Maryland, Michigan State, NC State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, and many others.

At Penn State, Winston Jr. quickly built a reputation for making particularly quick reads, trusting his eyes, and aggressively attacking the ball downhill, laterally, or in any direction necessary to deliver violent contact.

Winston Jr. led Penn State with 61 tackles in 2023 and was an asset in run defense. Unfortunately, the D.C. product partially tore his ACL early last season and was sidelined through Penn State’s bowl loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff. 

Even so, the rangy, hard-hitting safety had shown enough by then to warrant an early-round look.

On Friday night, that look turned into a Day Two pick as Winston Jr. will soon be relocating to Tennessee.

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Kevin Sinclair
KEVIN SINCLAIR

Kevin Sinclair writes coverage of the Pitt Panthers along with the Baltimore Ravens, the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Tennessee Titans for On SI. Previously, he was a recruiting reporter and managing editor at Irish Illustrated, the privately-owned Notre Dame site within the 247Sports Network, for over seven-and-a-half years. Kevin studied multimedia journalism and has been a sports writer for nearly a decade.

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