COLUMBUS, Ohio – It is just part of the annual cycle of the NFL Draft. Several top players will suddenly be singled out as potentially “sliding” down the draft board. Sometimes it is for red flags including unimpressive workouts, off-field issues or other character flaws. Other times it is for much more subtle reasons or unknown reasons.

If you listen to a handful of ‘draft gurus’, Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins may be sliding down NFL Draft boards. Once thought to be a shoo-in at No. 6 to the New York Giants, reports came out that the team might not have been quite as sold on Haskins as once thought and then the great debate started of “if not New York, then who” for Haskins?

A curious case for the quarterback that most proclaimed would be the top QB off the board. Now the emergence of Kyler Murray to Arizona rumors have really cast doubt if Haskins would still be the top quarterback off the board. Are there concerns that Haskins might not be the second or the third quarterback off the board?

Then again, NFL Draft experts don’t always agree and that seems to be the case with Haskins.

Those close to Haskins believe that whoever pulls the trigger on him will be getting not only one of the best quarterbacks in the draft but one of the best players in the draft.

With the draft on everyone’s mind, Haskins’s former position coach and now current Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was asked about his former pupil.

There is no denying the numbers that Haskins put up in a year where he finished third for the Heisman Trophy. 50 passing touchdowns, 4,831 passing yards, five games of 400-plus yards passing, a 70-percent completion rate all are number that are hard to beat. But there is more to Haskins than the numbers that he put up in 2018.

“I think when you look at what he did in one year it is tremendous,” Day said of Haskins on Wednesday afternoon. “Any time you have a quarterback like that you are looking for what is his extraordinary skill, what is it that makes him different, all of the great ones have that.”

There is something to be said about the fact that Haskins only has 14 career starts in the college game. That number is a lot lower than what most NFL talent evaluators would like to see out of a multi-million-dollar investment and there is a pretty strong precedent that one-year starters in college don’t always translate well to the next level.

But the argument can also be made that Haskins is not your typical one-year starter.

“I think his thing is his accuracy and his ability to see the field,” Day added. “He sees the field really, really well and the ball is always kind of in the right spot. With 50 touchdowns and I forget how many interceptions, he did not throw many interceptions, and we threw the ball a lot.”

It may be difficult to find many things wrong with Haskins on the surface other than his lack of a second season as a starter and a debate if he is really a “willing runner”. Last season Haskins never really showed much of a running streak in him (with apologies to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith) until the Maryland game.

What is not up for doubt is that he is a big, durable frame out there with an arm that can make all the throws and is not afraid to put the ball into small windows.

“He is a big (kid), he can see over those linemen, he is not six-feet tall, he really can see,” Day said.

And what about the news that Haskins will not be in Nashville for the NFL Draft in the green room? Is that an indication that he is worried about his position for the first round? Not so fast, as Day confirms rumors that had circulated around Columbus (Ohio) for weeks that Haskins never had any plans of attending the draft, regardless of what position that he would be selected.

"He never planned on going to the draft," Day added. "I remember talking to him I think last year at this time. He said, ‘If I ever have that opportunity, I wouldn’t go to the draft.’ He just wanted to be with his family, and he’s got a big family, a lot of supporters, so I think he wanted to do something back home. I think that’s something he always wanted to do.”

The good news is that Haskins and everyone who is supporting the talented signal caller will only have to hear about this for two more weeks with the NFL Draft starting on April 25th and spanning over the course of three days. The first round will be completed on the evening of the 25th while the second and third rounds will take place on the 26th and then the picks will come in quickly on the 27th as rounds four through seven wrap up.