This year Penn State Football will be without receiver Parker Washington; he led the Nittany Lions in receiving yards with 611, last season.

Penn State will also be without Mitchell Tinsley.

Last season, Tinsley led the Nittany Lions in catches, with 51, and touchdown receptions, with five.

Losing your top two receivers could be a significant blow; seeing what the Nittany Lions do to replace them will be interesting.

How Penn State Football Can Replace Top WRs

KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Harrison Wallace

KeAndre Lambert-Smith will return, who had 24 catches for 369 yards and four touchdowns last season.

Also returning will be Harrison Wallace, who produced 19 catches for 273 yards and one touchdown, during the 2022 campaign.

Lambert-Smith and Wallace have practiced, trained, and shared the field with Penn State’s new quarterback Drew Allar, during Allar’s freshman season last year, so they aren’t strangers to each other.

Penn State coaches are pushing Lambert-Smith to step up and be the number-one receiver this season.

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Transfer Portal Additions

The Nittany Lions also went to work in the transfer portal to find receiver help over the offseason.

James Franklin and staff brought in Dante Cephas from Kent State and Malik McClain from Florida State.

Cephas has twice earned All-MAC honors; he is from Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania. During his redshirt sophomore season, Cephas played in 14 games and had 82 receptions for 1240 yards and nine touchdowns.

Last season, Cephas missed three games with an injury, but, in nine games last season, he caught 48 passes for 744 yards on and three touchdowns.

Cephas averaged 15.1 yards per reception in 2021 and 15.5 in 2022 and proved to be an effective deep threat that could help the Penn State offense.

Meanwhile, at 6-foot-4 and 202 pounds, McClain will add size to the Nittany Lions’ receiving core.

McClain was a four-star recruit coming from Florida State. Last year at Florida State, McClain caught 17 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns.

McClain will give Allar a big body to throw to, and he could be very effective in the red zone.

Penn State Football is a run-heavy offense, with a first year quarterback and newly starting receivers; teams will gear up to stop the Nittany Lions’ rushing attack.

Allar and the Nittany Lions’ offense will likely see a lot of eight-man fronts, as a result of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen’s dominance in the backfield.

That said, the Penn State receivers will see a lot of one on-one coverages. They will need to win those one-on-one battles to be a successful team.

With Cephas, Wallace, and Lambert-Smith headlining the Nittany Lions’ passing game, there will be plays to be made down the field for Allar, and Penn State’s receiving corps.

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