Ohio State has had only six total players selected in each of the last two NFL drafts, but that number could go up in a big way next year.
An early look at the draft-eligible players on Ohio State’s 2023 roster suggests the Buckeyes could have one of their strongest and deepest draft classes ever in 2024.
One preliminary mock draft for next year released by 247Sports last week projected that Ohio State will have a record-setting seven first-round picks, one more than the current record of six shared by Miami (2004) and Alabama (2021). While that’s probably an optimistic projection, it’s no stretch to say that Ohio State’s 2024 draft class has the potential to be special.
That starts with Ohio State’s 2021 recruiting class becoming draft-eligible for the first time. Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka, JT Tuimoloau, Donovan Jackson, TreVeyon Henderson, Denzel Burke and Mike Hall are among the members of that class who have already become major contributors for the Buckeyes and are candidates to leave early for the 2024 NFL draft as potential early-round picks.
Ohio State also has a bunch of fourth-, fifth- and even sixth-year players who could be 2024 draft picks after opting to return to the Buckeyes for the 2023 season. Miyan Williams, Julian Fleming, Lathan Ransom and Ty Hamilton are among the members of its 2020 class who are prospects to watch for next year’s draft. Fifth-year seniors Cade Stover, Tommy Eichenberg and Steele Chambers all could have entered this year’s draft but are now set to be in the 2024 draft class instead, while sixth-year seniors Xavier Johnson, Matt Jones and Josh Proctor also have NFL potential.
Add in the possibility of breakout years for third-year Buckeyes like Jack Sawyer, Kyle McCord and Tyleik Williams, and the number of Buckeyes who should be on NFL radars entering the 2023 season climbs into the twenties.
There’s still a lot that needs to happen over the next year for a historically great 2024 NFL draft class to actually materialize for Ohio State. Some of these players may not end up entering the 2024 draft – because of the extra year of eligibility all players received in 2020, the only Buckeyes who are actually in their final year of eligibility are Johnson, Jones, Proctor and third-string quarterback Tristan Gebbia – while others need big years to actually get themselves drafted.
With a starting lineup that’s full of talented upperclassmen, though, Ohio State could challenge its school record of 14 total draft picks in 2004 – which stood as the overall record until Georgia had 15 in 2022 – if its top players perform as anticipated.
Below, we take a look at the many Buckeyes who should be on NFL scouts’ radars entering the 2023 season. We start with the seven third-year Buckeyes who are all being projected as potential first-round picks next year, followed by seven fourth- and fifth-year Buckeyes who are likely picks if they enter next year’s draft and conclude with seven other Buckeyes who could emerge as 2024 draft prospects depending on how their 2023 seasons go.
Third-Year Potential Top Prospects
WR Marvin Harrison Jr.
While we’re grouping Harrison with Ohio State’s other top prospects from the 2021 class, he’s really in a tier of his own. A wide receiver hasn’t been the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft since USC’s Keyshawn Johnson in 1996, but Harrison just might be the prospect who ends that drought.
At 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds with elite athleticism, excellent route-running skill, a well-proven ability to make spectacular catches, a work ethic that’s already become legendary in Columbus and Pro Football Hall of Fame bloodlines, Harrison has all the makings of an elite NFL wide receiver. He likely would have been a top-10 pick this year if he was eligible for the 2023 NFL draft, and he’s perhaps the surest bet of any prospect in the country to be one of the top picks in 2024.
DE JT Tuimoloau
Ohio State hasn’t had a first-round draft pick on defense since 2020, but Tuimoloau looks like a strong candidate to end that drought and give Larry Johnson another first-round defensive end in 2024. Possessing prototype physical ability for a defensive end at 6-foot-4 and 270 pounds, Tuimoloau has the upside to establish himself as a top-10 pick alongside Harrison with a big 2023 season.
To do that, Tuimoloau will need more consistent sack production after recording only four sacks in 2022. The numbers don’t paint the full picture of how disruptive Tuimoloau can be, though, and he’s shown the makings of an elite prospect when he’s been at his best – namely in his otherworldly performance against Penn State last season when he singlehandedly turned the game in Ohio State’s favor.
WR Emeka Egbuka
Ohio State has had three wide receivers selected in the first round of the last two NFL drafts, and Egbuka and Harrison could easily give the Buckeyes two more in 2024. Egbuka’s not quite the first-round lock that Harrison is, but he’s not far off.
At 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, Egbuka’s ability to both get open and catch the ball and make plays in the open field once the ball is in his hands should be appealing to NFL scouts. He’s already proven the ability to play both outside and in the slot and to add value as both a kickoff and punt returner, and he enters the 2023 season as one of the most dynamic offensive weapons in college football.
CB Denzel Burke
Burke didn’t play like a first-round pick last year, but he still has real potential to be Ohio State’s first Round 1 cornerback since Jeff Okudah and Damon Arnette in 2020. Both of them had breakout years in their final season as Buckeyes to become first-round picks, just like Denzel Ward did in 2018 and Marshon Lattimore in 2017, and Burke has an advantage over all of them with two years of starting experience under his belt.
At his best, Burke has shown he can be a lockdown cover corner with the size (6-foot-1 and 190), speed and physicality NFL scouts covet. If he builds off his strong spring and plays at his best with consistency in 2023, he’ll be a high NFL draft pick one year from now.
G Donovan Jackson
While interior offensive linemen aren’t valued as highly in the NFL draft as offensive tackles, elite guard prospects can still be first-round picks, and Jackson is a real candidate to fit that bill.
At 6-foot-4 and 320 pounds, Jackson has an excellent combination of explosiveness, power and technical skill that should translate to early success in the NFL. He was strong as a run blocker and also stout as a pass blocker in his first year starting for the Buckeyes, and NFL scouts will have a real chance to evaluate just how good he is this year as he leads the offensive line while playing in between an inexperienced left tackle and center.
DT Mike Hall
Hall has been described by his Ohio State teammates as “Baby Aaron Donald,” and that description didn’t look far off early last season as Hall racked up 7.5 tackles for loss in Ohio State’s first six games of the year. The potential he showed in the first half of the season is why DraftKings gave Hall the sixth-best odds to be the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s draft.
For Hall to actually be one of the top prospects in the draft, he has to show he can produce like that as an every-down player over the course of an entire season. Hall saw limited playing time in the second half of last season due to a shoulder injury, and he barely played at all as a true freshman. But anything is within reach for Hall’s 2024 draft stock if the explosive defensive tackle can turn the flashes he showed early in 2022 into consistently dominant play in 2023.
RB TreVeyon Henderson
A running back has to have a spectacular trait to be a first-round NFL draft pick, and Henderson does with his home-run-hitting speed. If he can recapture his freshman-year form in 2023 after an injury-plagued 2022 season, Henderson could thrust himself into the Round 1 conversation for the 2024 draft.
Like Hall, Henderson needs to prove he can remain durable and consistently produce over the course of an entire season, as his production also faded down the stretch of his freshman year. But the big-play ability Henderson has shown when he’s on should tantalize NFL teams about the weapon he can be out of the backfield.
Fourth-, Fifth- and Sixth-Year Projected Draft Picks
RB Miyan Williams
While Henderson’s speed makes him a more likely early-round pick than Williams, it’s certainly possible that Williams could end up being the higher-ranked prospect on some NFL teams’ boards.
A stockier, more powerful back at 5-foot-9 and 225 pounds who’s shown plenty of agility in his own right, Williams is an NFL-ready runner who projects to be drafted no later than the middle rounds and be a quality addition to a team’s running back rotation. With a career average of 6.7 yards per carry, he’s shown plenty of ability to break off long runs in his own right, though NFL scouts will want to see him make more of an impact in the passing game.
TE Cade Stover
Stover made the switch from linebacker to tight end early in his Ohio State career because he believed he’d have a better chance to play in the NFL as a tight end, and that move certainly looked like the right one last season as he emerged as an unexpectedly productive playmaker in the passing game for the Buckeyes, catching 36 passes for 406 yards and five touchdowns.
His rawness as a tight end remained apparent at times last season as he was inconsistent as a blocker, particularly late in the year. If he can become more polished with another year of collegiate experience, he’ll have a good shot at being a Day 2 draft choice next spring.
LB Tommy Eichenberg
No Buckeye did more to legitimize himself as an NFL draft prospect last season than Eichenberg, who hardly looked like a future pro in 2021 but emerged as one of the best linebackers in college football in 2022.
Eichenberg likely would have been a middle-round pick if he entered the 2023 NFL draft, and another year at Ohio State won’t necessarily change that, as his athletic testing might ultimately determine whether he can become an early-rounder. That said, the excellent instincts and consistent tackling he showed as a three-down player for the Buckeyes in 2022 are the hallmark traits that give him a chance to be a key piece of a future NFL defense.
LB Steele Chambers
While Eichenberg was Ohio State’s best linebacker last season, Chambers might have the higher upside to improve his NFL draft stock this season.
An explosive athlete who’s shown impressive playmaking range since making the mid-career move from running back to linebacker, Chambers wasn’t as consistently effective as Eichenberg last season but still showed considerable improvement from his first year playing the position at Ohio State. If he can build upon that with another jump in performance in 2023, he has the physical makeup to climb up draft boards.
S Lathan Ransom
The possibility of Ransom being an early entrant into the 2023 NFL draft gained steam as he had a breakout junior season and was named a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award. It lost steam when he struggled in Ohio State’s season-ending losses to Michigan and Georgia, but he could establish himself as a top safety in the 2024 class if he plays this fall like he did for most of last year.
In his move to the strong safety position last season, Ransom showed he could be a difference-maker in run support and was effective for most of the year in coverage. He’s also been an impactful special teams player throughout his Ohio State career, including two blocked punts last season, which will increase his appeal to NFL teams as a likely middle-round prospect.
WR Julian Fleming
Ask Brian Hartline, and he’ll tell you Fleming belongs in the first-round pick conversation with Harrison and Egbuka. At 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds with great speed, the No. 3 overall prospect in the recruiting class of 2020 has always been viewed as that kind of talent and started to show flashes of it last year when he caught six touchdown passes in a five-game stretch.
But Fleming has to stay healthy and prove he can be a complete wideout in 2023 if he’s going to make a big move up boards and be an early-round draftee in 2024. Repeated injury setbacks have kept Fleming from living up to the hype as a Buckeye so far, and scouts will want to see him expand his route tree and be more consistently productive in his senior season.
WR/RB Xavier Johnson
Hartline is also bullish on Johnson as an NFL prospect, proclaiming at Ohio State’s recent coaches’ clinic that Johnson is “easily a top-four round draft pick next year.” And based on what Johnson showed in limited opportunities last year, he does look like a legitimate NFL prospect even though he began his Ohio State career as a walk-on.
With 297 yards and three touchdowns on just 25 offensive touches in 2022, Johnson showed the ability to be a playmaker as both a wide receiver and a running back, and that versatile skill set combined with his wealth of special teams experience could make him a valuable NFL role player. Ohio State is going to need to give him more touches to give him a chance to become a middle-round pick, but his pro potential is real.
Others to Watch
DT Ty Hamilton
Hamilton is another Buckeye who has believers inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center that he can be an early-round NFL draft pick even though he hasn’t produced at that level yet.
With only 27 career tackles and 2.5 career sacks, Hamilton needs to become more of a playmaker if he’s going to be more than a late-round draft pick. But he has a great blueprint to follow from his older brother DaVon, who also had a quiet start to his Ohio State career but became a third-round NFL draft pick (and recently signed a $34.5 million contract extension with the Jacksonville Jaguars) after becoming a disruptive force on the Buckeyes’ interior defensive line in 2019.
DE Jack Sawyer
Considering Sawyer’s pedigree as the No. 5 overall prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, it would come as no surprise if Sawyer vaults his way up into the group of third-year top prospects with his play this season.
He has a longer way to go to get there than Tuimoloau at this point, but he did tie for the team lead with 4.5 sacks in 2022 and has flashed the combination of explosiveness, power and skill to be a dynamic pass-rusher. While his performance as a Jack linebacker last season was less impactful than expected, his move back to playing defensive end full-time this year could allow him to unleash his true ability and soar up draft boards.
DT Tyleik Williams
Much like fellow third-year defensive linemen Hall, Sawyer and Tuimoloau, Williams has flashed NFL ability in his first two years as a Buckeye but now must show he can consistently play at that level. While he burst onto the scene with 6.5 tackles for loss and five sacks as a true freshman, he was quieter as a sophomore, recording just 2.5 TFLs and one sack.
Now listed at just 290 pounds after starting his Ohio State career at 330 pounds, Williams will look to show improved conditioning and stamina that could enable him to play more snaps and be a more regular difference-maker. If he can do that, he’ll be another candidate to leave early for the NFL and get drafted in 2024.
QB Kyle McCord
Each of Ohio State’s last three starting quarterbacks have gone on to become top-15 overall draft picks after their third year in college, so McCord will certainly be an NFL prospect to watch this season if he wins the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback job. Dwayne Haskins needed only one year as Ohio State’s starter to emerge as a first-round pick, and McCord has the arm talent to theoretically have the same kind of rise.
He has to actually win Ohio State’s starting quarterback job first, though, before any projections about his NFL draft stock can be made. Considering that hasn’t happened yet, it may be more realistic to view McCord as a prospect for the 2025 draft than 2024.
G Matt Jones
Jones likely would have projected as an undrafted free agent if he had entered this year’s NFL draft, but taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility gives him a chance to get himself drafted in 2024.
He’s provided steady play on Ohio State’s interior offensive line for the past two years as the Buckeyes’ sixth man in 2021 and as the starting right guard in 2022, and 2023 will give him another season at right guard to make his case that he’s an NFL-caliber player as a leader of Ohio State’s offensive line.
S Josh Proctor
This is the fourth straight year Proctor has been included in our initial look at Ohio State’s possible NFL prospects for the next draft, but this year will be his final chance to make good on that potential.
While Proctor has shown the ability to be both a ballhawk and a heavy hitter on the back end, he’s never been able to put it all together, losing his starting job on the opening drive of the season last year after breaking his leg in the second game of the 2021 season. Projected as the starting free safety this year, Proctor will need to show he can be a reliable cog of the secondary to have the chance to be a draft pick.
S Ja’Had Carter
Having started 28 games in three years at Syracuse, Carter would have at least gotten a look from scouts if he chose to enter this year’s NFL draft. Instead, Carter chose to transfer to Ohio State with his sights set on elevating his draft stock and going pro in 2024.
After suffering a knee injury in spring practices, however, Carter still has work to do just to earn a starting job in the Buckeyes’ secondary. With two more years of eligibility, Carter may have a better chance of getting drafted in 2025 after multiple seasons with the Buckeyes.