Who are Penn State’s best offensive players of the last 25 years? How our panel voted
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Penn State football: The best players since 2000
For summer 2025, we’re looking back on the past quarter century of Penn State football and Nittany Lions. We formed a panel of voters to determine the best players at each position since the 2000 season, along with the top 10 offensive and defensive players overall.
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Our summer series ranking the best Penn State football players of the last quarter century is now onto the overall rankings — starting with the offense.
As a reminder, we reached out to eight Penn State beat writers to form a panel of voters who have determined the best Nittany Lions at each position since the 2000 season, along with the top 10 offensive and defensive players overall, based on their stats, accomplishments and the eye test.
That panel is made up of: Neil Rudel (Altoona Mirror), Rich Scarcella (Reading Eagle), Audrey Snyder (The Nittany Dispatch), Mark Brennan (Lions247), Mark Wogenrich (Penn State on SI), Frank Bodani (York Daily Record), Daniel Gallen (Lions247), Johnny McGonigal (PennLive), Josh Moyer (Centre Daily Times) and Jon Sauber (Centre Daily Times).
Let’s look at the 10 best offensive players of the last 25 seasons.
Note: All stats and years played are from 2000 and beyond unless otherwise noted. First-place votes are in parentheses for players with a high rank of one.
10. Mike Gesicki
High rank: 5 | Low rank: NR | Average rank: 9.95
Years played: 2014-2017
Watch the film, or glance at the stats, and it doesn’t take long to realize that Gesicki is one of the greatest tight ends to ever play for Penn State — whether we’re looking at the last 25 years or 125 years. (We’ll help with the stat-glance here: 129 catches; 1,481 yards, 15 TDs.) But what is sometimes forgotten about Gesicki’s career is that, early on, he was plagued by drops. During his sophomore campaign, he had 13 catches — and five drops. Five. One season later, with unprecedented work in the offseason, that all changed. He caught his first 45 balls without a single drop, and he never looked back. He eventually turned into a finalist for the Mackey Award, a second-team All-American and a two-time All-Big Ten selection. He was a fiery leader, one whose value went beyond the gridiron, and his dynamic catching ability was a boon to the offense.
9. Olu Fashanu
High rank: 6 | Low rank: NR | Average rank: 9.2
Years played: 2020-2023
Fashanu is the most recent Penn State offensive lineman to go in the first round of the NFL Draft and is the first offensive lineman to make this list. He decided to return for 2023 despite getting first round buzz after his 2022 season and made the most of it. Fashanu made second team All-American in 2022 and improved that to first team the following year, and did the same with All-Big Ten, going from second to first team. He added the 2023 Rimington-Pace Big Ten offensive lineman of the year award to go with it before going 11th in the 2024 NFL Draft. While he’s not the highest-ranked offensive lineman on this list, he was the top-ranked in the position group rankings. And Fashanu was first on my ballot at the position and sixth overall on offense as the best pass protector the program has had in the last 25 seasons.
8. Jahan Dotson
High rank: 6 | Low rank: NR | Average rank: 9.05
Years played: 2018-2021
Despite not receiving any first-place votes at wide receiver, Dotson finished second because of his narrow range as someone who was ranked in the top four by all 10 votes. So it’s no surprise that his consistency on the field and in the voting carried him into the top 10 offensive players list. The former Nittany Lion had a very linear progression throughout his career, having a role as a freshman, stepping up as a No. 2 option as a sophomore, becoming the No. 1 option as a junior before breaking out as an elite player as a senior when he was a third team All-American. He’s second in career receptions (183), fourth in career receiving yards (2,757), and is tied for second in career receiving touchdowns (25) in Penn State history. Dotson’s 2021 was one of the best single seasons in program history, with his 91 receptions ranking third, his 1,182 receiving yards ranking third and his 12 touchdowns ranking second in single season program history. All of that while holding the record for most receiving yards in a single game in Penn State history with 242.
7. Levi Brown
High rank: 4 | Low rank: NR | Average rank: 8.7
Years played: 2002-2006
Despite getting the most first–place votes (four) Brown finished second among offensive linemen in one of the closest finishes in any of these rankings. He finished two voting points short of Fashanu in that ranking, but overtook the younger former Nittany Lion here, largely because he received a much higher ceiling vote. Brown was a two-time second team All-American (2005 and 2006) and a two-time All-Big Ten selection, with a first team spot in 2005 and a second team one in 2006. As Neil Rudel noted, his career started at defensive tackle, but the switch to offense proved beneficial for the Nittany Lions and Brown — who went on to be selected fifth overall in the 2007 NFL Draft.
6. Michael Robinson
High rank: 2 | Low rank: NR | Average rank: 6.3
Years played: 2002-2005
The stats don’t tell the full story with Robinson. He started his career as a utility player, lining up across the board on offense and making do of what he had thanks to an offensive staff that wasn’t able to properly utilize its best player. He still managed to make an impact where he could as both a runner and receiver, but didn’t take off until he was finally made the starting quarterback in 2005. That’s when he took the nation by storm, throwing for 2,350 yards and 17 touchdowns to 10 interceptions, while also rushing for 806 yards and 11 touchdowns. Robinson was nearly impossible to bring down and was a battering ram for an offense that led the team to an 11-1 finish. His fifth-place Heisman Trophy finish makes him the only player on this list to make the top-five for the award.
5. Allen Robinson
High rank: 2 | Low rank: 9 | Average rank: 5.3
Years played: 2011-2013
Robinson’s No. 1 ranking at wide receiver should have been no surprise to any Penn State fan, and nor should his top-five finish among all offensive players. Robinson is a two-time Big Ten receiver of the year award-winner, a 2013 first team All-American and had the best career of any player on this list despite being “badly misused” by the 2011 coaching staff, according to Mark Brennan. That year he had only three catches for 29 yards as a true freshman. And even with that first season, Robinson still finished fourth in career receptions (177), fifth in career receiving yards (2,479) and ninth in career receiving yards (17) in Penn State history. His 2013 was the best single season any Penn State wide out has had, with 1,432 receiving yards (first in program history) and 97 receptions (second in program history) helping him carry an offense that was in desperate need of his production. Robinson was the clear No. 1 option in his second and third years on campus, but there still wasn’t anything opposing defenses could do to stop him — part of what makes him the best Penn State receiver since the turn of the century.
4. Tyler Warren
High rank: 2 | Low rank: 10 | Average rank: 4.8
Years played: 2020-2024
Penn State’s top TE was both obvious and unanimous, and so was his high finish among every offensive player. Forget the last quarter century, Warren’s 2024 campaign was one of the greatest overall receiving performances in Penn State history. He set a single-season Penn State record in receptions (104), boasted the second-most PSU receiving yards in a season (1,233) and added a respectable eight receiving touchdowns. Oh, and on top of all that, Mr. Versatility lined up just about everywhere — quarterback, receiver, running back, center, etc. He finished seventh in the Heisman voting, won the Mackey Award, was named a first-team All-American and became a first-round NFL draft pick. He left Happy Valley as its most decorated tight end in history, and it’s incredibly difficult envisioning another TE knocking off Warren as Penn State’s best-ever. After all, when’s the next time a Nittany Lion TE will get a first-place Heisman vote? This isn’t recency bias; Warren was just a generational talent.
3. Larry Johnson
High rank: 2 | Low rank: NR | Average rank: 4.4
Years played (after 1999): 2000-2002
There shouldn’t have been much controversy when it comes to our panel’s 1-2 at running back — and that’s helped get both of those players in the top three on offense overall. And while Saquon Barkley remains the best Penn State RB of the last 25 years, Larry Johnson clearly had the best Penn State RB season. In 2002, the local State High grad rushed for a national-best 2,087 yards, 7.7 yards per carry and 20 touchdowns. (Barkley never surpassed 1,500 yards in a season, nor 6 yards per carry.) It’s easy to forget just how good Johnson was because, for some reason, the running back only saw significant time as a senior. Three times that season, he broke Penn State’s single-game rushing record with more than 250 yards — big-play ability that earned him the Maxwell Award, Doak Walker Award and Walter Camp Award. (He was also third in the Heisman voting.) He was a first-round NFL draft pick who, for a few years, was arguably the world’s best RB. He rushed for 1,700 yards in back-to-back NFL seasons.
2. Trace McSorley
High rank: 2 | Low rank: 8 | Average rank: 3.6
Years played: 2015-2018
Passing stats: 9,899 yards, 77 touchdowns, 25 interceptions
Rushing stats: 1,697 yards, 30 touchdowns
McSorley was the obvious choice as the top quarterback — and an unsurprising one alongside his former teammate in the top two here — and Mark Brennan put the reasoning well.
“No-brainer for me here,” Brennan said about his quarterback rankings. “McSorley put Penn State in position to win every critical game he played save two after becoming a starter, and the losses most definitely were not on him.”
McSorley both had the peak and the longevity to earn this spot, ranking second in career quarterback wins, passing yards, passing touchdowns and total offense in Penn State history while also being first in passing yards and passing touchdowns for a single season in program history. The three-time All-Big Ten second teamer also finished first in rushing yards by a QB and rushing touchdowns by a QB — giving him the resume of the best dual-threat quarterback in program history. And all of that is without even mentioning the Big Ten title he led the team to in 2016 and the upset win over Ohio State that same year — two events that changed the course of the program under James Franklin and put them on the trajectory to land players like current starter Drew Allar to even further raise the program’s ceiling.
1. Saquon Barkley
High rank: 1 (10) | Low rank: 1 | Average rank: 1
Years played: 2015-2017
It’s virtually impossible to exaggerate while talking about Saquon Barkley. Analysts like Matt Millen were comparing Barkley to Penn State legend Curt Warner just a few games into his career — and who knew Barkley would exceed those comparisons so quickly? Fans and locals immediately recognized Barkley’s talent, and the nation would catch on soon enough. Barkley was a staple on SportsCenter — diving over, through and around defenders — and there was always a sense he could break one at any moment. He didn’t have the offensive line of Larry Johnson or Ki-Jana Carter, but it didn’t matter. His balance, vision, power and speed combined to make a generational back — one that even Barry Sanders, the NFL legend himself, couldn’t deny. “What Saquon did, I think he really restored a lot of faith in what the running back position can do,” Sanders said in March. “He’s a unique individual in that his skill set, the way he plays the game, the situation he’s in, the great team that he’s surrounded by — all those things matter and help with what he’s doing. But he’s certainly a generational type of talent.” Legend recognizes legend.
