Several members of the 2025 Ohio State football team will play one more football game in an Ohio State helmet over the next 10 days as they look to bolster their NFL draft stock by performing well in pre-draft all-star games.
Former Ohio State offensive lineman Ethan Onianwa and long snapper John Ferlmann will be among the participants in The American Bowl, a new pre-draft all-star game that will be played Thursday night (8 p.m., NFL Network) in Lakeland, Florida. Former Ohio State running back CJ Donaldson will play in the East-West Shrine Bowl on Tuesday (7 p.m., NFL Network) in Frisco, Texas. Finally, former Ohio State cornerback Davison Igbinosun will play in the Senior Bowl on Saturday, Feb. 1 (2:30 p.m., NFL Network) in Mobile, Alabama.
As those former Buckeyes prepare to take the field in a Buckeye helmet one more time with their sights set on impressing NFL scouts, we’re taking a look at where each of them stacks up as NFL draft prospects and how they could elevate themselves in their pre-draft showcases.
Senior Bowl: Davison Igbinosun, CB
Igbinosun is the top prospect among the former Buckeyes who will be playing in pre-draft all-star games this year. He’s the only sure-fire draftee among them, as projected first-round picks Caleb Downs, Arvell Reese, Carnell Tate, Kayden McDonald and Sonny Styles and likely middle-round picks Max Klare and Caden Curry won’t be playing in the Senior Bowl, Shrine Bowl or American Bowl.
When Igbinosun announced he would return to Ohio State for his senior season last January, he told ESPN that he was “coming back to school to be a first-round draft pick.” He’s not projected to go quite that highly – per NFL Mock Draft Database, which compiles big boards and mock drafts from around the Internet, he’s currently projected as a third-round pick – but he did boost his draft stock by staying at Ohio State for another year.
Best known for being college football’s most penalized defender in 2024, Igbinosun cut down on penalties in 2025, committing just five after drawing 13 flags as a junior. Serving as Ohio State’s No. 1 cornerback, Igbinosun limited opponents to 16 catches for 167 yards on 39 targets, per Pro Football Focus, while making two interceptions, eight pass breakups and 53 tackles.
At 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds with proven ability as a physical cover corner and run defender, Igbinosun has the tools to be a future NFL starter if he can continue to cut down on penalties in the future. He’ll look to prove that as he goes head-to-head with various NFL draft prospect wide receivers during Senior Bowl practices and the game next week.
With 2,385 total snaps of collegiate experience between three years at Ohio State and one year at Ole Miss, however, there’s already plenty of film for NFL scouts to see what Igbinosun is capable of. And any NFL decision-makers who reach out to Ryan Day to ask about IGB are sure to get a glowing review of the former Buckeye cornerback, considering what Day said when he named Igbinosun as one of Ohio State’s unsung heroes during the head coaches’ press conference before the Cotton Bowl.
“Davison Igbinosun really changed the culture of our secondary when he got here from Ole Miss, and has continued to do that,” Day said. “Gritty, competitive dude who just brings it every day, and he has had a major impact on our program.”
Tight end Will Kacmarek – who Day named as Ohio State’s unsung hero on offense – also accepted an invitation to the Senior Bowl last week. As of Thursday, however, Kacmarek was no longer listed on the Senior Bowl’s roster for next week’s game. A Senior Bowl spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry about Kacmarek’s status for the game.
Regardless of whether he plays in the Senior Bowl, Kacmarek projects as a Day 3 pick as one of the draft’s top blocking tight ends. Playing in the Senior Bowl, however, would potentially give Kacmarek a chance to show more of what he can do as a receiver after catching just 23 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns in two seasons at Ohio State.
Shrine Bowl: CJ Donaldson, RB
Donaldson transferred to Ohio State last offseason with visions of boosting his draft stock in his final year of college football, but didn’t have as much production as expected in his lone season as a Buckeye. Donaldson ran for 10 touchdowns thanks to regular work in goal-line situations, but rushed for only 361 yards on 96 attempts, a career-low of 3.8 yards per carry after he averaged 4.9 yards per rush across three seasons at West Virginia.
The 6-foot-2, 232-pound senior began the 2025 season as Ohio State’s starting running back, but was surpassed on the depth chart by Bo Jackson after non-conference play.
Donaldson’s limited production leaves him needing a big week at the Shrine Bowl to improve his chances of being drafted. While he’s shown the size and strength to move the chains in short-yardage situations and to be an effective pass protector, scouts will want to see more explosiveness from Donaldson after he had just one run that went longer than 13 yards (a 27-yard run vs. Grambling State) last season.
CJ Donaldson played one season for Ohio State, rushing for 361 yards and 10 touchdowns, after three seasons at West Virginia.
While Donaldson is the only Shrine Bowl participant who finished his career at Ohio State, he will be joined in Frisco by one other former Buckeye. Jackson Kuwatch, a former Ohio State walk-on linebacker who transferred to Miami (Ohio) in 2023, joins Donaldson on the West team in the East-West game after a breakout fifth-year senior season in which he recorded 109 tackles with 10 tackles for loss, five sacks and a pass breakup for the RedHawks.
American Bowl: Ethan Onianwa, OL & John Ferlmann, LS
No Buckeye participating in a pre-draft all-star game needs to impress more than Onianwa. While Onianwa was projected as a potential top-100 pick when he transferred to Ohio State from Rice, he was unable to crack the starting lineup for the Buckeyes, playing just 96 offensive snaps as a backup offensive tackle and guard in 2025.
Onianwa now projects as likely to go undrafted, but he was a three-year starter at Rice that Ohio State recruited to be its 2025 left tackle for a reason. While that didn’t ultimately pan out for Onianwa, the American Bowl gives him a chance to remind people what he can do when he is on the field. And he believes his time at Ohio State prepared him well to compete at the next level, even though he only played sparingly as a Buckeye.
“Everyone here is just so great and amazing, and kind of like getting used to that and just like how everything's just so on point, like the workouts are all on point, practice is all on point, there's like a good routine to it. It really shakes you up for the next professional level, like everyone here, like they act as professionals,” Onianwa told Eleven Warriors before the Cotton Bowl.
That said, Onianwa will need to have a strong performance in pass protection to rebuild his draft stock, as his struggles vs. Ohio State’s pass rushers in practice ultimately kept him from earning his way onto the field in a significant capacity for the Buckeyes.
Ferlmann is also a likely long shot to be drafted because of the position he plays, but it’s certainly not out of the question that he could earn his way onto an NFL roster. He was consistently accurate with his snaps in his three years as Ohio State’s long snapper, and he comes from a program with a pedigree of producing NFL long snappers. Two of the NFL’s 32 long snappers this season, Liam McCullough (Falcons) and Jake McQuaide (Rams), are Ohio State alumni, though both went undrafted.
Ohio State’s NFL draft hopefuls
Fifteen total members of the 2025 Ohio State football team are prospects for the 2026 NFL draft, which will be held from April 23-25 in Pittsburgh. The full list of Buckeyes hoping to play in the NFL next season can be found below.
S Caleb Downs
DT Kayden McDonald
LB Arvell Reese
LB Sonny Styles
WR Carnell Tate
TE Max Klare
DE Caden Curry
CB Davison Igbinosun
TE Will Kacmarek
CB Lorenzo Styles Jr.
DT Tywone Malone Jr.
RB CJ Donaldson
OL Ethan Onianwa
K Jayden Fielding
LS John Ferlmann
