Theo
Johnson.
Theo
Johnson.
Penn St.· 6'6"· 259 lb· 4.57s 40
"One of the two or three best athletic tests any tight end has ever posted, attached to a college receiving resume that would not get most prospects drafted before the fourth round."Pre-draft read
Johnson is a true Y tight end who wins with size and long speed rather than nuance. At 6-foot-6 and 259 pounds he attaches to the tackle, runs the seam and the deep over, and forces safeties to declare early because his stride eats cushion fast. Penn State also used him as a big slot on third down.
His secondary trait is contested-catch length: he plays above defensive backs in the red zone. As a blocker he is willing and positionally sound but leans rather than strikes, so he is more effective sealing outside zone than digging out a five-technique. The signature is the athletic profile — a 4.57 forty and a 39.5-inch vertical at that mass — which puts a starting-caliber ceiling on a player whose college production never matched it.
Play-action offense with heavy 12 personnel that attacks the middle of the field with seams and deep overs
Year 1: TE2 in 12 personnel who blocks on the edge and runs four or five vertical concepts a game. Ceiling: 60-catch starting Y whose seam speed and size force a safety to stay honest on every snap.
A quick-game, spread-out passing attack that turns its tight end into an option-route slot receiver working underneath, or a gap-heavy run offense that needs its Y to displace five-techniques one-on-one.
Value comes from the vertical stem and the goal line, not from volume underneath; pair him with a receiving move tight end rather than another inline blocker.
Theo Johnson Penn State Highlights
College cut-up of the seam work, red-zone finishes and inline blocking reps.
2024 NFL Draft Highlights: TE Theo Johnson | Penn State Football
Official Penn State draft reel from his seven-touchdown senior season.
Theo Johnson Highlights & Combine Results
Senior Bowl and combine footage behind the 9.99 RAS testing line.
Johnson is a four-year Penn State tight end with a rare frame and one of the best athletic testing profiles the position has ever produced. He is an inline Y first, comfortable attached and asked to block, but the projection lives on what he does running vertically from a wing or slot alignment against linebackers who cannot match his stride.
The production never caught up to the traits. He caught 77 passes for 938 yards in four years, and even his best season, 2023, was only 34 catches for 341 yards, though the seven touchdowns tied for third nationally among tight ends and earned honorable-mention All-Big Ten in a run-first offense that rotated him. The tape showed real red-zone value, a captain's approach and functional blocking on the move. The flags were hands, a route tree that never expanded past seams and flats, and body control that lags his straight-line speed.
The board treated him as a developmental Day 3 tight end with Day 1 tools: a tier below Brock Bowers and the top group, priced on projection instead of resume. The Giants took him at 107 as a two-way starter bet, accepting that a limited college target share meant the receiving side would have to be built from scratch.
- 01
Rare athletic profile
A 4.57 forty, 39.5-inch vertical and 10-foot-5 broad at 259 pounds produced a 9.99 RAS, second among tight ends since 1987.
- 02
Vertical seam threat
Long strides and a 10.55-second split let him stack linebackers immediately, which is where all seven of his 2023 touchdowns came from.
- 03
Red-zone catch radius
He high-points over safeties and shields with his frame, and his contested-catch work has translated straight to the NFL at a 60-plus percent rate.
- 04
Willing inline blocker
Not a mauler, but he stays attached, plays with correct angles on outside zone and can be left on the edge in base personnel.
- 05
Leadership and reliability
Team captain, Iron Lion Award winner, and a four-year contributor who never lost the trust of a demanding Penn State staff.
- 01
Inconsistent hands
Drops have been a running theme from State College through two NFL camps, and they cap what his target share can be.
- 02
Thin production resume
938 receiving yards across four college seasons is a small sample for a Day 2 grade, so the projection carries most of the weight.
- 03
Narrow route tree
Seams, flats and crossers made up most of his usage; he has little experience winning at the stem against physical coverage.
- 04
Blocking power
He absorbs contact instead of delivering it, and heavier defensive ends can stall his base at the point of attack.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.57sp50
- Vertical
- 39.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 125inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.15sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.19sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Penn State | 7 | 4 | 56 | 0 |
| 2021 | Penn State | 13 | 19 | 213 | 1 |
| 2022 | Penn State | 11 | 20 | 328 | 4 |
| 2023 | Penn State | 13 | 34 | 341 | 7 |
| Career | — | 44 | 77 | 938 | 12 |
CFBD verified; season totals sum exactly to the career line (44 G, 77 rec, 938 yds, 12 TD). Penn State lists 45 games played and 29 career starts.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Honorable Mention All-Big Ten (2023)
- Penn State team captain (2023)
- Iron Lion Award (2023)
- Tied 3rd nationally among TEs with 7 receiving TDs (2023)
Penn State-lineage athlete who scores in the red zone and runs the seam while the underneath work stays limited.
Starting-caliber seam and red-zone target who moves the safety and finishes above the rim.
Toolsy but inconsistent-handed tight end whose role swings year to year depending on the offense around him.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The Giants handed him the job faster than expected. Johnson started 11 of 12 games as a rookie in 2024, caught 29 balls for 331 yards and a touchdown — fifth-most receiving yards by a rookie tight end in franchise history — before a foot injury against Dallas put him on injured reserve. Year 2 was a clean step forward: 15 starts, 75.8 percent of the offensive snaps, 45 catches for 528 yards and a team-leading five touchdowns, with 11.7 yards per reception ranking sixth among tight ends with 50-plus targets. Entering 2026 under John Harbaugh and Matt Nagy, the Giants signed Isaiah Likely in free agency but still plan heavy 12 personnel, keeping Johnson on the field as the more complete inline option.
The pick has already returned starter value from the fourth round, which makes it a clear win, but the ceiling question from the draft room never went away. Everything the traits promised — seam speed, red-zone size, snap-count durability — showed up. The hands did not. Drops were the one flag every evaluation listed, and they are still the reason he is a good starting tight end rather than a top-ten one.
Data note: CFBD verified; season totals sum exactly to the career line (44 G, 77 rec, 938 yds, 12 TD). Penn State lists 45 games played and 29 career starts.