Penn State WR Lab: Building the ultimate wide receiver from Franklin-era players
Penn State’s current wide receiver drought aside, there’s a long and impressive line of pass-catchers during head coach James Franklin’s time with the program. Today, we’re stepping into the lab to take the best elements of each and combining them into one superstar wideout.
Frame: Justin Shorter
The frame is a tricky thing for wide receivers because overly tall players can sometimes struggle to change directions and run routes as efficiently as shorter players. But if we’re drawing a wide receiver in a lab, he probably looks like former five-star commit Justin Shorter. Shorter never lived up to his recruiting status, which was built primarily on his size and dominance in high school.
Still, that frame and skill set got him a scholarship at Penn State, a spot at Florida out of the transfer portal, and a fifth-round selection by the Buffalo Bills despite an underwhelming career. Teams want size at wide receiver. Shorter was the perfect blend of 6-4, with nearly 34-inch arms. He also had a prototypical X receiver build at 223 pounds.
Hands: Parker Washington
Unfortunately, some PFF data doesn’t track back to 2014 so the drop rate sample size is incomplete for the Franklin-era of wide receivers. However, it’s close enough that we’ll the best hands award to Penn State wide receiver Parker Washington. The ultra-slot receiver was a layup on third-down conversions but, more impressively, had a 5.2% drop rate for his career with the Nittany Lions. That’s the best out of the top target earners with data in this field.
Route Running: Jahan Dotson
The crown for best route runner goes to Jahan Dotson in the most unscientific way. Penn State has numerous great route runners. However, Dotson was an elite receiver at Penn State and had lesser tools as a separator. His 7.24 3-cone drill was the slowest of the players we considered for this spot. Despite that, Dotson was virtually unguardable for two seasons, backing up a COVID breakout season in 2021 with 1,182 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Speed: KJ Hamler
Because of a bad string of injuries, we never got to see KJ Hamler run a 40-yard dash during his transition from Penn State to the NFL. So, while we don’t know just how fast he was, it’s clear he’s plenty fast enough.
However, it’s interesting that speed doesn’t directly correlate to deep target production. Interestingly, Hamler is fourth in deep targets, yards and touchdowns during his time at Penn State. But factors like quarterback, offensive system, and other aspects of offensive play come into factor, too.
Agility: DaeSean Hamilton
DaeSean Hamilton is the quintessential quicker-than-fast wide receiver who thrived in the slot for Penn State. The former Nittany Lion ran in the high 4.40s and low 4.5s during his NFL draft testing but ran a wildly impressive 6.84 three-cone drill time. That’s an impressive mark that shows off his change-of-direction skills and route-running prowess.
Hamilton caught nine touchdowns from the slot in 2017, the most for any receiver during our window. He was such a good route runner that he caught 11 of 15 deep passes that year, another Penn State record. Thanks to his shake-and-bake skills, getting open wasn’t an issue for Hamilton.
Jumping/body control/clutch receptions: Chris Godwin
Quick, Penn State needs a critical reception during a big game. Who are you throwing the football to? For me, there’s no clearer answer than former Penn State top target Chris Godwin. Unfortunately, we don’t have college data on Godwin’s contested catch performance at Penn State, but we do know that his career completion percentage in traffic is 59.9% in the NFL. That’s an impressive number for a player making his living over the middle of the field.
From short passes to jump ball down the field, there’s not a more well-rounded target who could get open even when he wasn’t open like Godwin.
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