Arvell Reese has been one of college football's breakout stars this season, ascending from Ohio State's No. 3 linebacker in 2024 to the Butkus Award frontrunner in 2025.
The Athletic's Dane Brugler and Nick Baumgardner have showered Reese with praise this fall, but that praise reached its peak on Thursday, when Baumgardner named Reese the No. 1 overall pick in his 2026 NFL Mock Draft.
"If there’s a football player in this draft reminiscent of Micah Parsons, it’s pretty clearly Reese, the dynamic Ohio State junior. He can play in the box, off the edge or even in the slot in some situations — he has true do-it-all potential and could be a game-breaker in the NFL," Baumgardner wrote of the New York Jets selecting Reese at No. 1. "There’s zero pressure on the Jets to take a quarterback here, as they now own five first-round picks over the next two years."
"If there’s a football player in this draft reminiscent of Micah Parsons, it’s pretty clearly Reese... he has true do-it-all potential and could be a game-breaker in the NFL.”– Nick Baumgardner on Arvell Reese
This season, Reese leads Ohio State with 54 tackles, eight more than the team's second-leading tackler, Sonny Styles (46). Reese's nine tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks rank second behind Caden Curry, who has 10.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks in 2025.
This week's "Arvell Reese is really freaking good" tweet.
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) November 1, 2025
Speed. Burst. Violence. What a weapon. pic.twitter.com/fnQ1moA83a
While Reese's statistics show the impact the 6-foot-4, 243-pound linebacker has made as for the Buckeyes, his advanced metrics reveal the impact extends far beyond the box score.
According to Pro Football Focus, Reese has recorded 22 pressures in eight games, resulting in eight sacks (PFF has 1.5 more sacks than Ohio State's official box scores), two quarterback hits and 12 quarterback hurries. Reese has lived in the backfield while having no home in Matt Patricia's defense, as he has recorded 168 snaps on the defensive line, 193 snaps in the box, 14 snaps as a slot corner and two snaps as a cornerback this season, per PFF.
2026 EDGE Class | Career Pass Rush Productivity
— Gridiron Grading (@GridironGrading) November 5, 2025
Arvell Reese LB? EDGE? Both?
The only recent pick in his universe of pass rush production is a pretty good NFL player. pic.twitter.com/ySx6uMD9w3
"He is the best player that I've scouted this year. Plain and simple," Brugler said in the latest episode of The Athletic Football Show. "It would be very disingenuous to put anyone else at No. 1 besides Arvell Reese because the tape is that good and every week I kind of rave about him, and so I would be lying if I put anybody else at No. 1."
In Baumgardner's mock draft, two more Buckeyes came off the board in Round 1: Caleb Downs to the Miami Dolphins at No. 5 and Carnell Tate to the Arizona Cardinals at No. 10. If Tate (or another Ohio State player) landed in Arizona next season, he would join a team full of former Buckeyes, as the Cardinals have drafted Paris Johnson Jr., Marvin Harrison Jr., Cody Simon and Denzel Burke over the past three years.
