Browning a sleeper contender for NFL DROY, per oddsmakers
The 2021 NFL Draft snapped a sixth-year streak in which Ohio State had one of its defensive players get selected in the first round.
In fact, only two Buckeyes were taken off the board by the end of the third round, with linebackers Pete Werner and Baron Browning selected as the No. 60 and No. 105 overall picks to the New Orleans Saints and Denver Broncos, respectively.
Forty-nine defensive players heard their name called before Browning in this year’s draft, but early odds suggest he has a better chance than quite a few of them to take home the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award in 2021.
Of the 24 players listed in SportsBetting.ag’s odds to win the aforementioned honor next year, Browning was the lone Buckeye to appear, as his +4000 odds put him 18th among the incoming crop of first-year players.
Those might not be anything close to favorable odds for the four-year Ohio State veteran, but the fact that he’s jumped over a large number of draft classmates that were selected before him –– including Werner himself –– appears significant.
Ohio State players have dominated the award in recent years, with four Buckeyes earning the honor of DROY in the past five seasons alone.
However, Chase Young (2020), Nick Bosa (‘19), Marshon Lattimore (‘17) and Joey Bosa (‘16) were all first-round picks, with Lattimore being the only one of the bunch to fall lower than No. 3 overall, going No. 11 to the Saints in 2017.
In fact, just one player to win the NFL’s DROY was selected later than the first round, with Indianapolis Colts linebacker Darius Leonard earning the award as the No. 36 overall selection.
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Just three players have better than +1000 odds to win the 2021 award, and each were selected in the first 19 picks of this past draft.
Washington Football Team linebacker Jamin Davis, the No. 19 overall selection out of Kentucky, has the best odds of the bunch at +400. After Davis, former Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons comes in at +500 as the No. 12 overall pick for the Dallas Cowboys, and Miami (Florida) edge rusher Jaelan Phillips (No. 18) has +750 odds.
Besides Parson, three other players that came from Big Ten teams were listed with better odds to win the award than Browning. That list includes former Michigan defensive end Kwity Paye at +1000, former Penn State edge rusher Jayson Oweh at +2000 and former Northwestern cornerback Greg Newsome at +2800.
Browning's standout athleticism no doubt buoyed his cause on this list in particular, as the former five-star high school recruit ran a 4.58-second 40-yard-dash at Ohio State Pro Day on March 30, and registered a 40-inch vertical leap and a 10-foot, 10-inch broad jump –– both high-marks for any Buckeye.
It might seem unlikely for the Buckeyes to push their streak to three-straight years with a Scarlet and Gray winner, but the program’s track record for producing some of the NFL’s best young defenders certainly does not hurt the cause for Browning, Werner or the other handful of incoming rookies out of Ohio State.
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