Penn State adds more versatility with Davion Brown, Film Review

The Penn State wide receiver room gained another commitment for the Class of 2026 on Monday evening when four-star Virginia native Davion Brown committed to the program, just days before his official visit to Happy Valley. The 6-1 receiver commit has a wide array of rankings in the Industry consensus. He’s a four-star talent at every recruiting ranking service outside of On3, where he’s a high three-star candidate just outside the On300.

However, He’s ranked the 71st overall prospect by ESPN and the 146th overall prospect by 247. So, from 71 to unranked, the opinions on Brown are positive, but vary. As always, the answers reside in the full game footage. Let’s review what we’ve found about the newest Penn State commit.

Strengths: Penn State found another versatile athlete

Run after the catch:

During his sophomore season, Brown played a hybrid role, lining up in the backfield often. This year, Trinity Episcopal moved him to the slot, allowing him to affect the passing game and running game equally. He’s a common target on screen passes and arrow routes. He is also a staple in the team’s running game on end arounds and jet sweeps.

Once he gets the ball in his hands, the 205-pound Brown turns into a different player. He’s a natural at setting up blocks, making the first defender miss, and running to daylight. In some ways, he’s the reverse of current running back Quinton Martin. He’s not a running back with the ball in his hands, but it’s a high-level skill for a wide receiver. He’s tenacious and runs angry, delivering strong blows at contact with low pad level and great leg drive. It’s easy to see how offensive coordiantor Andy Kotelnicki could incorporate him into the offense in this way.

Speed

Brown has eye-catching speed and acceleration off the line of scrimmage. Despite not having many opportunities to run deep routes or see targets downfield, he shows promise as a field-stretching receiver with a reported 4.42 40-yard dash time.

That speed shows up regularly on film. When he does run downfield, he’s a regular target for double teams in zone coverage. When he gets loose in the secondary after breaking a tackle, he backs up his timed speed with explosive, big-play touchdowns. Whether underneath or out in space, Brown is a home run threat.

Route running basics

Brown runs a somewhat simplified route tree in the Trinity offense, with his diet mostly consisting of out routes, speed outs, screens, and zero routes. Despite lining up at receiver, his main usage is still more running back than receiver.

However, he shows great potential as a separator when he runs more complex routes. He’s got quick hips, fluid movement skills, and explosive transition abilities. He can snap off a dig route at a hard 45-degree angle efficiently. He also understands leverage and tries to use moves off the line of scrimmage to beat press coverage.

Areas of development at Penn State

Route running efficiency and nuance

Despite his potential and early signs of positional awareness, Brown is still a raw prospect. An underlying lack of efficiency in his running style makes it easier for him to cover than his impressive physical skills would indicate. Beyond his physical skills, Brown struggles to create separation with his transitions. He’s a dynamic athlete, but runs somewhat robotic routes with a lack of suddenness and setup in his routes.

Contested catches

Let’s start this section with a caveat. Brown does not live in an offense set up to make him shine as a receiver. Many of the contested catches that fell to the ground were due to poorly placed balls, bad timing from the quarterback or bad route spacing within the offense.

Yet beyond that, Brown does not have a large catch radius. He can make spectacular catches and has good hands, but his 30-inch arms limit how far outside of his body he can make a play. Brown has the right mentality and concentration skills to be a good contested catch player, but the results are inconsistent on the full game footage. Again, much of that is outside of his control, but more than anything, it’s not clear if this will be a skill for him at Penn State.

Fit at Penn State

Receiver…All of them

“Figure it out later” is a fine plan when you’ve recruited a stable of receivers with overlapping skills. So far, Penn State receiver’s coach Marques Hagans has done that with the Classes of 2025 and 2026. However, it’s hard to come up with a player who represents more versatility among that group than Brown. He could truly play all three positions, and you could make a case for each based on his skills. Certainly, there are areas where Brown needs to improve, but he exhibits the right skills and mentality to become a viable threat in the Penn State offense when the time comes.