Why aren’t the tight ends involved more in the offense? That and more in this week’s mailbag
Our latest mailbag of the season is here and we have the answers to your questions. As a reminder, if you have any questions send them to psu_mailbag@centredaily.com for inclusion in the mailbag in the future. From big picture to small minutiae, we’ll answer your queries about the Penn State football program.
Do steroid tainted guys like Bonds and Clemens deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? And, do you see DDS (Dani Dennis-Sutton) earning a starting role next year if Isaac comes back? — Karl
First, yes. Provide me a definitive list of players who took steroids and then we can talk about players being left out. Otherwise, let ‘em all in. (Yes, I know this is a bit from The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. No, I will never deny an opportunity to pontificate about the steroid era in baseball. Go Phils.)
The latter is an interesting question. Right now, I would assume Chop Robinson will slide into a starting spot next season ahead of Nick Tarburton, if Tarburton decides to use his COVID year. The other side is much more interesting. Isaac hasn’t had the type of season I, or I think most people, were expecting as a pass rusher. In fact, he’s probably third behind Robinson and Dennis-Sutton from that standpoint right now.
That being said, James Franklin is loyal to his longtime starters and I would bet on Isaac getting the starting job next year if he comes back. I wouldn’t be surprised at all, though, if Dennis-Sutton ends up taking the role by the end of the season, if not the midpoint. He and Robinson have been the Nittany Lions’ most impressive defensive ends this season, although Robinson still needs to work on defending the running game. They’re the future of the defensive end position and they may even be the present. Regardless of who ends up starting next year, I’d still expect a heavy rotation and for every player involved to get their fair share of snaps throughout the season.
Why haven’t we seen Mitch Tinsley take a bigger role in the offense this season? — Eric
This is something I’ve actually thought about a lot recently. I expected Tinsley to have a fairly big role heading into the year and thought he would establish himself as the No. 1 receiver in this offense but that hasn’t happened and Parker Washington has taken over that distinction.
The perplexing thing is that Tinsley hasn’t really struggled. He’s taken advantage of Penn State’s offensive scheme and gets open when offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich designs those opportunities for him. When he does get the ball in his hands he can be dynamic in the open field. He’s more of a powerful runner than an agile one, using his strength to toss away defensive backs when they try to bring him down.
I think the biggest issue is at quarterback with this. We haven’t seen any receiver really take over games other than Washington and most of what he does he creates on his own in the open field. Tinsley is a very good receiver who should be drafted in the 2023 NFL Draft. I think this really just boils down to quarterback play and not anything the senior receiver is at fault for.
Between breaking in younger players and suspected injuries among the wide receiver core, the offense seems to have struggled to identify a consistent option for a third target in the passing game. With that in mind, why haven’t we seen Theo Johnson and the other tight ends involved more in the offense? They’ve come up with big catches in some crucial moments and seem to be contributing fairly often to the explosive plays that Franklin looks for on offense, so I have been curious about their lack of targets. — Chris
Another pertinent issue with the offense. I really don’t know why he hasn’t been more involved but I think there’s reason to believe that will increase moving forward. As Chris says, the tight ends have played an important role even if it generally hasn’t been an outsized one thus far.
I’m going to focus on Johnson and Brenton Strange here because they’re at the top of the depth chart. Strange I actually understand not involving him in some of the plays we’ve usually seen Penn State tight ends make in recent years. He’s a little bit undersized from a height standpoint and that makes things a little tougher on him in contested catch situations. However, he’s a very good athlete who can use his strength after the catch and should be used more in the middle of the field.
Johnson is basically a wide receiver when he’s on the outside and should excel in those contested situations that we’ve seen players like Mike Gesicki find success with. The problem is that Yurcich generally favors 11 (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers) personnel and throwing to his wide receivers. That has changed this season with the talent in the tight end room, but still not to the extent that it probably should change. I would think Johnson is in for a big stretch of games the rest of the way now that we’ve seen Yurcich adapt his offense more the last few weeks.
Send in your questions
That’s it for this week’s mailbag. Don’t forget to email us at psu_mailbag@centredaily.com to get your questions answered. We’ll have you covered this Saturday for Penn State’s game against Indiana, so be sure to head to CentreDaily.com for all of the coverage you need.
