Ohio State has been a fixture in terms of programs that repeatedly put players into the NFL. You would have to go back to the 2013 draft class to find the last time that Ohio State put fewer than five players into the league by way of the draft.
In fact, Ohio State has put double-digit players in the draft through the past two classes, 16 into the first round over the past six classes and 55 total players over that same period.
It should come as no surprise that Ohio State has recruited well through the years, but that doesn’t always equate, sometimes highly-rated collegiate players don’t translate well to the NFL game and conversely, sometimes there are players who may have been lowly rated coming out of high school for one reason or another who flourish at the next level when football becomes a full-time job.
It got us to thinking about how the past dozen or so classes breakdown in terms of how the rankings numbers translate to the NFL for Ohio State. We will look at a list of questions and breakdown who we got right, who we may have missed on and a whole lot more. For the sake of this exercise, we are only going to talk about players who ended their career with the Buckeyes, so players like Joe Burrow, who signed out of high school with Ohio State, will not be counted but players like Justin Fields and Trey Sermon will count.
While this is two years after the National Championship, this class is made up of the bulk of that 2014 team that went on to win the first CFP Championship and quite honestly should have gone on to repeat in 2015. But we are not going to relive that season, the frustrating loss to Michigan State and just how things kind of unraveled along the way.
Ohio State had five players taken in the first round, three in the top-10 and all five were taken within the first 20 picks, meaning that 25-percent of the top-20 were all from the Ohio State Buckeyes. 10 of the 12 players were taken in the first three rounds and this class will go down as one of the most well-thought of classes in the modern draft-era. Not everyone worked out in football, but that can be par for the course in the draft, especially after you put a couple of years into it and first contracts run out. But there certainly are still some names in this class that are moving forward and getting paid handsomely for their skills.
2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Total Number of drafted players: 12
Average star rating of drafted players: 4.0
Highest rated player to be drafted: Adolphus Washington
Lowest rated player to be drafted: Darron Lee
Biggest surprise: An argument can be made that Michael Thomas is the most productive player from this class
Everyone knew that this was going to be a special class but was anyone quite sure how well-regarded the Buckeyes would be in the draft? Joey Bosa came off the board No. 3 to (then) San Diego and was immediately followed up by Zeke Elliott to Dallas. There were a few surprises that Eli Apple went at No. 10, not a question if he was a tremendous player, but it just seemed to be a little bit early but each year we see a run on corners. Taylor Decker would be the 4th first-rounder at No. 16 and then Darron Lee would round things out at No. 20.
Bosa, Elliott and Decker are still going strong as starters while Eli Apple has been trying to find a toehold somewhere and goes into 2021 with Cincinnati. Darron Lee has a new team as well, with the Las Vegas Raiders giving him a look over.
The New Orleans “Buckeyes” Saints took a pair of Buckeyes in the second round and both Michael Thomas and Vonn Bell went on to great careers with the Saints. Only Thomas remains with the team now and he would lead the NFL in receptions in both 2018 and 2019 and then would lead in receiving yards in 2019 for good measure as well. That was good enough to be named NFL Offensive Player of the Year in ’19. Thomas would sign a 100-million-dollar extension, not bad for someone who did not want to be known only as Keyshawn Johnson’s nephew.
Bell would sign a deal with Cincinnati in March of 2020 for three years and 18-million dollars. Bell has started in 61 games, has 462 tackles, 10 forced fumbles and eight sacks. 2020 with the Bengals was the high-water mark in tackles with 114, the first time that Bell had recorded triple-digit tackles.
Of the final five picks of the draft, only tight end Nick Vannett is still in the league as Adolphus Washington’s final NFL action came a couple of seasons ago while Braxton Miller, Joshua Perry and Cardale Jones have transitioned into their post-playing day careers with Miller looking to get involved with purchasing the former Urbana University, Perry has put together a strong broadcasting career and Cardale is a bigger-than-life personality involved in a number of ventures including a podcast.
