It’s ironic that Oklahoma, the home state of Nate Roberts, is among the flattest in the USA, because Roberts has a real shot to climb to the mountaintop of Ohio State’s tight end room in 2026.
The sophomore Roberts has flashed since his first round of practices with the Buckeyes in spring 2025. Max Klare and Will Kacmarek, the top two tight ends on last year’s depth chart, are off to the NFL draft. He’s made great gains in the weight room and through his second spring practice.
“I feel a lot more comfortable now,” Roberts said on April 2. “A whole year of preparation and being in the program definitely helps out. So I'm just going out there more confident every day and just trying to do my job as well as I can.”
Roberts is holding himself to the standard of a No. 1 tight end at Ohio State this offseason, and the way things are trending, that’s the position he could well find himself in this year.
“He's taken quite a bit of a step, and it started in the weight room,” Ohio State tight ends coach Keenan Bailey said. “Every day we're competing in there, and he was far and away top-ranked (lifter at tight end) when we came out of winter, and that's why he got the first crack at it when we got to spring. Now he's got to keep improving, but we've got high expectations. And no one has higher expectations than he does for himself, and I'm proud of how he's progressing.”
Roberts came to Ohio State with decent recruiting aplomb, listed as the No. 203 overall prospect and No. 10 tight end in the 247Sports composite rankings. He turned heads in the 2025 spring game, grabbing four receptions for 41 yards after earning plenty of praise from Bailey and company.
That translated into a small role in the Buckeyes’ offense, which is massive for a freshman at one of football’s most developmental positions. He played fullback in Ohio State’s short-yardage and goal-line packages, which featured four tight ends in total. He saw 160 snaps of action in total, fourth-most among OSU’s line bookenders. He also caught four passes for 30 yards.
“I was trying to do my job as well as I could. I did it well enough,” Roberts said. “I was able to go out there on Saturdays and get the job done, but I was really excited with the production that I was able to do last year as a freshman, and I'm just trying to build on that for this year.”
When the year was done, and Klare and Kacmarek departed, Bailey and Roberts discussed the future. While Ohio State wanted to build out more tight end depth in the portal, and did so in the form of Ohio transfer Mason Wiliams and Northwestern transfer Hunter Welcing, Bailey wanted Roberts to embrace a bigger role at the position. Perhaps the biggest.
“Kee wanted to see me step into a bigger role this year,” Roberts said. “Max and Will are both gone, so I needed to step up. But bringing Hunter in and Mason in, it was a brand new room, wide open, so it was really just go out there, compete. You're going to play every position as the tight end. You're going to play the Y. You're going to play the H. You're going to be moved around a lot, so the conversations that we really had was just go out there, do your job as well as you can.”
As Bailey referenced above, Roberts set to work tackling that challenge in the weight room. He tacked on 10 to 15 pounds of lean muscle, reaching 250 pounds. He’s attacked his blocking development with increased fervor, wanting to build enough strength and technique to block defensive ends in the C-gap (between offensive tackles and tight ends). Technical growth was of paramount importance.
“I think technique was such an important thing at the next level,” Roberts said. “Because these dudes are the best in the nation. Especially these Big Ten defensive ends are big dudes. So, I had to learn how to play with my leverage and have great technique against these guys, because that was really the only way that I was going to win. Because I'm not heavier than those guys. So, just straining as hard as I could and having the right technique.”
A potential top tight end role comes with increased leadership responsibilities, too, something Roberts is embracing.
“I feel like I've really tried to take that leader role as much as I can,” Roberts said. “Just building each day and trying to lead by example as well as I can.”
Roberts is eager to show his full capabilities to Buckeye Nation in his expanded role this year. His reps at fullback weren’t exactly the best for showing his receiving skills, or even his real tight end blocking skills.
“I'm able to block in-line and be able to run routes,” Roberts said. “They've only seen me go out of the fullback, really. I think that's really all they got to see. But this year, I'm ready to show that I'm the all-around tight end and able to do everything.”
While Bailey noted it’s “going to take everybody” to replace what Ohio State lost at tight end between Klare, Kacmarek and, to a lesser degree, Jelani Thurman, the Buckeyes could have a budding talent headlining the position room this year in Roberts.
“Sometimes we can think of him as like a young guy because he's been here for one year, but his first college rep was (on) 4th-and-1,” Bailey said. “We ran behind him and we scored a touchdown. He's played a lot of ball. So sometimes I don't think of him as a young guy, but proud of how he's developed.”
