The 2025 All-Buckeye Team: How A 53-Man Roster of Ohio State’s Active NFL Players Stacks Up

After 14 players from Ohio State were selected in the 2025 NFL draft, the pool of former Buckeyes around the league is as deep as it’s ever been before. As of this weekend, 68 players who finished their college careers at Ohio State were on NFL rosters. Another 13 Buckeyes who were on NFL teams last season are free agents who have not yet signed with new teams for the 2025 season.

That means there’s more than enough Buckeyes throughout the NFL to build a 53-man roster composed entirely of players from Ohio State, and that’s exactly what we did by putting together the 2025 edition of the Eleven Warriors All-Buckeye Team.

With five more first- and second-round draft picks added to the fold in wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, offensive linemen Donovan Jackson and Josh Simmons and running backs Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, the All-Buckeye Team projects to have the NFL’s best offense – particularly in the passing game with C.J. Stroud throwing to a multitude of star wideouts, though it is a bit thin on interior offensive line depth.

The All-Buckeye Team will need to score a lot of touchdowns and two-point conversions, as Ohio State still doesn’t have a kicker in the NFL, but the defensive line can rotate three-deep with 2025 draftees Tyleik Williams, JT Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer and Ty Hamilton joining a unit that was already loaded with All-Pro defensive end Nick Bosa and defensive tackle Cameron Heyward leading the way. The defensive back seven doesn’t have as much star power outside of Denzel Ward, but there’s still enough former Ohio State linebackers and defensive backs in the NFL to build a solid depth chart.

The full depth chart for the 2025 All-Buckeye Team:

A few notes before we get into the position-by-position breakdown:

• Because NFL regular-season rosters are limited to 53 players, the All-Buckeye Team roster is, too. That’s why some active NFL players from Ohio State aren’t on the team, though we’ve also put together a practice squad with some of the top NFL Buckeyes that didn’t make the 53-man roster.
• Former Ohio State players who played on NFL teams in 2024 that haven’t yet signed with new teams are eligible for the All-Buckeye Team, but preference was given to players who are currently on rosters for 2025.
• There is no salary cap for the All-Buckeye Team.
• Only players who finished their college careers at Ohio State are eligible for the All-Buckeye Team, so you won’t find former Buckeyes who transferred elsewhere like Joe Burrow or Jameson Williams.
• The roster and depth chart were set based on who we project to be the top NFL players from Ohio State in 2025, not past career achievements.

QB: C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields, Will Howard

This is the best trio of quarterbacks Ohio State has ever had in the NFL at the same time. 

Stroud wasn’t as elite in his sophomore season as he was as a rookie, but he’s still well within the top half of NFL starting quarterbacks and already the best NFL quarterback (not including Burrow) that Ohio State has ever produced. Fields is getting another chance to start this year with the New York Jets, making Ohio State one of seven schools (along with Alabama, Cal, LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon and USC) that’s projected to have multiple NFL starting quarterbacks this year.

Howard will have a steeper climb to a starting job as a sixth-round pick – though the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback depth chart remains wide open as it waits for a decision from Aaron Rodgers – but he’s an ideal third-string quarterback for the All-Buckeye Team after leading the 2024 Buckeyes to a national championship.

Collectively, this would be one of the best quarterback rooms in the NFL.

RB: J.K. Dobbins, TreVeyon Henderson, Quinshon Judkins

The All-Buckeye Team’s running back unit looks far stronger than it did a year ago. Dobbins, who had missed the better part of three years with injuries, is coming off a resurgent season in which he ran for 905 yards and nine touchdowns in just 13 games. Henderson and Judkins could each be immediate NFL starters as early second-round picks and both have the potential to quickly emerge among the league’s top running backs.

Pairing the highly successful tandem of Henderson and Judkins from Ohio State’s national championship team with Dobbins would make for one of the NFL’s best running back trios. Henderson and Judkins replace Ezekiel Elliott and Trey Sermon from last year’s roster, as both of them are currently unsigned free agents (as is Dobbins, though it would be a shock if he isn’t signed this summer given his success last season) after Elliott averaged just 3.1 yards and Sermon averaged just 2.8 yards per carry last season.

WR: Terry McLaurin, Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Chris Olave, Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka, Curtis Samuel

Ohio State has so many star wide receivers in the NFL right now that Egbuka joins the All-Buckeye Team as its No. 6 receiver even though he was just selected with the 19th overall pick in the NFL draft.

McLaurin, Wilson, Smith-Njigba, Olave and Harrison are all the No. 1 receivers for their actual NFL teams, so putting them all on one roster would give the All-Buckeye Team a receiving corps that only an LSU, Alabama or USC all-star team could rival.

McLaurin firmly established himself as one of the NFL’s best receivers with his 82-catch, 1,096-yard, 13-touchdown season in 2024, while Smith-Njigba and Wilson are also coming off 1,000-yard campaigns. Olave had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons before his 2024 season was cut short by concussions, while Harrison will look to establish himself as one of the league’s best wideouts in 2025 after an 885-yard rookie season in 2024.

Picking who wouldn’t make the All-Buckeye Team at wide receiver – a task that will only get tougher as the likes of Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith join the league in the years to come – was the toughest roster decision we had to make. With room for just seven wideouts on the squad, Curtis Samuel narrowly edged out fellow ninth-year pro Noah Brown for the final spot.

TE: Luke Farrell, Jeremy Ruckert, Cade Stover

Ohio State isn’t projected to have a starting tight end in the NFL this year, but it has a trio of solid contributors at the position led by Farrell, who landed a three-year, $11 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers this offseason thanks to the blocking ability he demonstrated in four years with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Ruckert hasn’t made a huge impact in his first three years with the Jets but could be in line for a bigger role this year, especially considering his familiarity catching passes from Fields. Stover had a solid first year with the Texans, catching 15 passes for 133 yards and a touchdown from Stroud, and he’ll look to build on that in his second NFL season.

The All-Buckeye Team lacks a star playmaker at tight end – a role Max Klare could potentially fill in a year or two – but its trio should be good enough, particularly as blockers, with all the talent they have around them at wide receiver.

OT: Paris Johnson Jr., Taylor Decker, Josh Simmons, Dawand Jones

Johnson established himself as one of the NFL’s best young offensive tackles in his second season with the Arizona Cardinals while Decker continues to be a stalwart left tackle for the Detroit Lions, giving the All-Buckeye Team a strong pair of bookends for its offensive line.

Simmons could soon join Johnson as one of the NFL’s top young left tackles after the Kansas City Chiefs drafted him with their first-round pick, and he gives the All-Buckeye Team an excellent backup offensive tackle for now. Jones has battled injuries in his first two NFL seasons, but he’s performed well enough when he’s been healthy to be a starting option for the Cleveland Browns, earning him the final offensive tackle spot on the All-Buckeye squad over Thayer Munford and Nicholas Petit-Frere.

G: Jonah Jackson, Donovan Jackson

The Minnesota Vikings’ first-round selection of Donovan Jackson gives the All-Buckeye Team some needed reinforcement at guard, as Jonah Jackson is the only other former Ohio State offensive lineman who’s in line to be a starting guard in the league this year. Assuming Jonah returns to form as the Chicago Bears’ right guard after struggling with the Los Angeles Rams’ experiment of moving him to center last season, the Jackson 2 should give the All-Buckeye Team a high-quality tandem of starting NFL guards.

Guard depth is a concern for the All-Buckeye Team as the only other guards from Ohio State who played in the NFL last season, Michael Jordan and Matthew Jones, are currently unsigned free agents who could face uphill battles to earn NFL roster spots in 2025. It would be tough to keep either of them on the roster over any of the 53 Buckeyes who made the team, so we’ll roll the dice with carrying just two guards and elevate Jordan from the practice squad if either of the Jacksons get hurt.

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C: Josh Myers, Luke Wypler

Myers is currently projected to be the backup center for the New York Jets, leaving Ohio State without a starting center in the NFL, but he was the Green Bay Packers’ starters for the last four years, giving the All-Buckeye Team an experienced center – albeit one that hasn’t quite performed well enough to establish himself as a top center in the league, making center the biggest question mark of the All-Buckeye offensive line, though not a glaring hole.

Wypler has played in just five games with one start in two seasons with the Browns, missing the entire 2024 season with an ankle injury, but he remains the second center on the All-Buckeye Team for this year with Seth McLaughlin going undrafted due to the Achilles injury that could sideline him for the 2025 season.

DE/EDGE: Nick Bosa, Jonathon Cooper, Chase Young, Joey Bosa, JT Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer

The All-Buckeye defense is led by a loaded rotation of edge rushers that would be the envy of all NFL teams.

Nick Bosa headlines the All-Buckeye defense as one of the best defensive players in the entire NFL. Cooper has quietly become a star in Denver, recording 10.5 sacks last season to establish himself as a premier pass rusher. Young is coming off a resurgent season in New Orleans in which he ranked sixth in the NFL with 73 quarterback pressures. Joey Bosa has been plagued by injuries in recent years, but any team would be happy to have him as its No. 4 defensive end as he can still be a major difference-maker when healthy.

An already-excellent crop of former Ohio State defensive ends in the NFL gets even better with the additions of Tuimoloau and Sawyer, who are both coming off fantastic senior seasons for the Buckeyes but will have to earn their way up the depth chart of the All-Buckeye Team with all the established stars Ohio State already has in the league at their position.

Nick and Joey Bosa join forces with Jonathon Cooper, Chase Young, Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau on the All-Buckeye Team. (Photo: Kirby Lee – Imagn Images)

DT: Cameron Heyward, DaVon Hamilton, Tyleik Williams, Mike Hall Jr., Dre’Mont Jones, Tyquan Lewis, Ty Hamilton

The All-Buckeye Team is also deep at defensive tackle, led by an ageless wonder in Heyward who remains one of the NFL’s elite interior defensive linemen – earning first-team All-Pro honors in 2024 – even though he’s about to turn 36 this week.

There’s plenty of options to rotate alongside Heyward, led by DaVon Hamilton, who’s been a steady presence in the interior of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ defensive line for the past five years. Williams and Hall both have the potential to emerge as impact players just as they were at Ohio State, while Los Angeles Rams fifth-round pick Ty Hamilton projects to be a similarly solid interior run stopper to his older brother.

Jones and Lewis both play primarily on the edge but have also played defensive tackle in the NFL, so they kick inside to boost the All-Buckeye Team’s interior pass rush and depth due to how loaded the Ohio State all-star squad is at defensive end.

LB: Pete Werner, Malik Harrison, Jerome Baker, Baron Browning, Cody Simon

Ohio State hasn’t had an elite NFL off-ball linebacker since Ryan Shazier’s neck injury cut his career short, but Werner has been a productive starter for the Saints, recording 327 tackles in his first four NFL seasons. Neither Harrison (who signed with the Steelers this offseason) or Baker (who joined his hometown Browns) is expected to be a starter in 2025, but both of them are solid rotational linebackers who have been starters at the NFL level.

Like Jones and Lewis, Browning plays primarily as an edge defender in the NFL, but he moves back to linebacker for the All-Buckeye Team since Ohio State has far more defensive linemen than off-ball linebackers in the league. Simon, who edges out Tommy Eichenberg for the final linebacker spot after he was drafted a round higher than Eichenberg, is the only true Mike linebacker on the All-Buckeye roster, so Ohio State’s alumni squad would benefit from the Arizona Cardinals fourth-round pick making a smooth transition to the league as a rookie.

CB: Denzel Ward, Marshon Lattimore, Jeff Okudah, Jordan Hancock, Denzel Burke

Ward, who led the entire NFL with 19 passes defensed in 2024, is the clear star of the All-Buckeye secondary as one of the league’s elite cornerbacks. Lattimore has been one of the NFL’s top cornerbacks at his best, too, but he’s battled injuries for each of the last three seasons, which has kept him from playing up to his past Pro Bowl form.

Okudah has also battled injuries for most of his NFL career, so it’s a good thing for the All-Buckeye Team that its cornerback depth gets a boost from the arrivals of Burke and Hancock, though both of them also have a lot to prove in the league as fifth-round picks. Despite going in the fifth round, Hancock slots in as a starter at the nickel cornerback position – making him the only rookie starter on the All-Buckeye Team – as Ohio State’s other NFL cornerbacks haven’t regularly played that position in the NFL or at Ohio State.

Considering all of that, Lattimore and Okudah’s ability to stay healthy and Burke and Hancock’s readiness to play as rookies could determine whether the cornerback position is a strength or a weakness for the All-Buckeye Team.

S: Malik Hooker, Jordan Fuller, Ronnie Hickman, Lathan Ransom

Like at linebacker, Ohio State doesn’t have any superstar safeties in the NFL, but it has a solid trio of quality starters in Hooker, Fuller and Hickman. Ransom adds another potential future starter to Ohio State’s NFL safety contingent, giving the All-Buckeye Team a solid two-deep at safety, albeit one that could use the range and all-around playmaking ability it will get a year from now when Caleb Downs is in the NFL.

Vonn Bell gives the All-Buckeye Team another veteran option at safety, but he’s left off the 53-man roster as he currently remains unsigned after losing his spot in the Cincinnati Bengals’ starting lineup down the stretch of last season.

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K: None

The All-Buckeye Team needs Jayden Fielding to emerge as an NFL prospect in his senior season at Ohio State as there aren’t currently any eligible kickers for the team. Mike Nugent, whose NFL career ended in 2020, is the last kicker from Ohio State to kick in a regular-season game.

P: Cameron Johnston

Johnston missed nearly the entire 2024 season after tearing his ACL, but is expected to be back as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting punter this year. Assuming no ill effects from the injury, Johnston gives the All-Buckeye Team a punter it can rely on.

LS: Liam McCullough

While Jake McQuaide bounced between multiple teams last year in his 14th NFL season and is currently an unsigned free agent, McCullough has become a mainstay with the Atlanta Falcons, signing a four-year contract extension that shows how much he’s trusted in his role.

Practice Squad: WR Noah Brown, S Vonn Bell, DT Johnathan Hankins, RB Ezekiel Elliott, G Michael Jordan, OT Thayer Munford, LB Tommy Eichenberg, DE Zach Harrison, C Seth McLaughlin, G Matthew Jones, WR Xavier Johnson, OT Josh Fryar, TE Gee Scott Jr., S Tanner McCalister

NFL practice squad rules allow us to keep up to six veterans with more than two accrued seasons in the league, so we use those spots to keep Brown, Bell, Hankins, Elliott, Jordan and Munford – all of whom have been NFL starters at various points in their careers, which speaks to how deep the pool of Buckeyes in the league currently is.

The rule that all of the other players on the practice squad must have no more than two accrued seasons limits us to eight other active NFL Buckeyes who have entered the league since 2023: Eichenberg, Harrison, McLaughlin, Jones, Johnson, Fryar, Scott and McCalister. Eichenberg and Harrison are both solidly projected to make their respective teams as defensive backups, but the rest of those Buckeyes are all candidates to find themselves on real-life practice squads this year as they’re all undrafted players who will have to battle to earn roster spots this offseason.