Penn State Football: 5 Players that must break out in 2021

Theo Johnson 

Penn State Football could make the case for being ‘Tight End U’ of the last few seasons after putting Mike Gesicki into the NFL and now Pat Freiermuth will hear his name called in this April’s draft.

Freshman Theo Johnson may have the potential to be better than both of them.

At six-foot-six and 254 pounds, Johnson is a great athlete who can run and block and showed some promise down the stretch run of last season.

Johnson caught four passes for 56 yards in seven games last season, including a 23 yard reception down the seam against Illinois in the season finale, where he caught the ball in traffic, willing to take a hit from the safety and bounced off a few defenders.

The Ontario native was dealing with a shoulder injury when he arrived on campus last year, and then the whacky offseason because of Covid-19 definitely hindered his ability. The tell tale sign of what this staff thinks of him is that he immediately stepped in front of Zack Zuntz on the depth chart which led to him entering the portal last week.

It is yet to be seen how tight ends will be used in Yurcich’s offense, however if Johnson can become anything like the next Freiermuth, the sky is the limit for this offense.