COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State football held its Pro Day for the 2021 NFL Draft on Tuesday, which means we, of course, took the opportunity to look one, two, three and four years into the future when it comes to the Buckeyes and the NFL Draft.
Justin Fields is the only sure first-round pick for the Buckeyes this April, after the Buckeyes have produced multiple first-round picks for the last five drafts, starting with their five first-rounders in 2016. Next year, receivers Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson should give Ohio State multiple first-rounders again.
But how many total first-rounders will there be on the OSU roster in 2021, from the veterans to the true freshmen?
By my count, the Buckeyes peaked in recent times with 12 future first-rounders on the roster in 2015:
2016 first-rounders: Joey Bosa, Ezekiel Elliott, Eli Apple, Taylor Decker, Darron Lee.
2017 first-rounders: Marshon Lattimore, Malik Hooker, Gareon Conley.
2018 first-rounders: Denzel Ward, Billy Price.
2019 first-rounder: Joe Burrow.
2020 first-rounder: Damon Arnette.
Could the 2021 roster top that? In an exercise like this, projecting based off recruiting rankings is a must, so we did that based on talent level, position, opportunity and what the players may have flashed so far. Between the three of us, Nathan Baird, Stephen Means and I came up with 15 names of potential first-rounders. Here they are, based on their current year in the program.
Fourth-year players: WR Chris Olave, OT Nicholas Petit-Frere.
Third-year players: WR Garrett Wilson, DE Zach Harrison.
Second-year players: OT Paris Johnson, WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, LB/S Kourt Williams, WR Julian Fleming, QB C.J. Stroud.
First-year players: RB TreVeyon Henderson, DE Jack Sawyer, WR Emeka Egbuka, OG Donovan Jackson, CB Jakailin Johnson, QB Kyle McCord.
We didn’t include fifth-year players Haskell Garrett at defensive tackle and Thayer Munford at offensive tackle, two accomplished veterans who will be picked in 2022, but who we believe aren’t quite first-round players. Also not on the list are fourth-year players like defensive end Tyreke Smith, tight end Jeremy Ruckert and cornerback Sevyn Banks, who have established themselves as important Buckeyes and could pop into a higher draft tier this season. And then there are other young second-year Buckeyes who are just beginning to flash, like safety Lathan Ransom and cornerback Cam Martinez, who with regular playing time could prove they deserve to be in this conversation.
But mostly, we projected. The 2020 class of second-year players was ranked No. 5 in the nation and the 2021 class of freshmen was ranked No. 2 in the nation. But we probably set the bar too high by having five players from 2020 and six from 2021 in the first round.
Ohio State’s 2017 recruiting class was ranked No. 2 in the nation, featured multiple OSU stars and should wind up with 12 of the 21 players in the class getting drafted. But only two — Chase Young and Jeff Okudah — were first rounders, while J.K. Dobbins went in the second round and players like Baron Browning, Pete Werner, Wyatt Davis, Josh Myers and Shaun Wade should be high picks in this draft, but none are projected as first-rounders.
Listen to the full Buckeye Talk Podcast from Wednesday to hear our explanations about these future draft projections, and to catch up on what we thought of how Fields, Browning, Werner and other Buckeyes performed at Pro Day on Tuesday.
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