What the New York Jets will get in Ohio State WR Garrett Wilson

Heading into his freshman season in 2019, Garrett Wilson stepped into a full wide receiver room: Chris Olave, K.J. Hill, Binjimen Victor, Austin Mack and Jameson Williams, all competing for snaps, for targets, for receptions and for touchdowns.

But Wilson wasn't intimidated.

One of two receivers in the Buckeyes' 2019 class along with Williams, the four-star was the No. 6 receiver in the class and the No. 7 player out of Texas. He knew what the competition would be like.

It's where Wilson began to find his stride, leading him to be selected No. 10 by the New York Jets in the 2022 NFL Draft

“I probably really started learning receiver my first year when I got here,” Wilson said. “A lot of stuff leading up to my freshman year was just ability and just watching ball a lot. I’ve always watched ball, loved the game. There’s something to be said about spending more time in an offense. Just as I’ve been here three years and spent more time in Coach (Ryan) Day’s offense, seeing how he likes to run things, I’ve started to figure things out more.

"I’d say it came naturally. It was one of those things that as I spent more time in the program, I kind of got better at.”

For a program that's been known to produce top-tier players at the next level including Terry McLaurin and Michael Thomas, Wilson became something no other Ohio State receiver has done since Ted Ginn Jr. in 2007: be named a first-round pick in the NFL Draft.

In three years, Wilson blossomed from a receiver ready to play day one, recording 432 receiving yards and five touchdowns, including a nine-yard pass from Justin Fields in his first ever collegiate game against Cincinnati, to a bonafide weapon, using his combination of consistency and explosiveness to turn into 24 touchdowns.

He's as quick of a receiver as Ohio State has had, teaming up with Chris Olave to give opposing defenses two sub-4.4 receivers to worry about on the outside with an up-and-comer in the slot in Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who's on a similar path.

He's strong with his hands, giving any quarterback he plays with the consistency and knowledge needed to make adjustments and make things easy down the field, especially when given one-on-one situations.

Wilson's a human highlight reel, one that seems to do anything to pluck a football out of the air. And it's something Ohio State has come to view as routine, finishing as one of three receivers with more than 936 receiving yards in 2021, tying for the team lead with 13 touchdowns.

No matter where he lines up, whether it's on the outside or in the slot at the next level, Wilson is a matchup problem, and one that needs to be accounted for, especially with the Jets.

With a quarterback already in place to build the offense around in Zach Wilson, Garrett Wilson has a chance to join a young wide receiver room with former Ole Miss star and first-round pick Elijah Moore and Corey Davis already at the former BYU signal caller's disposal.

But the Ohio State wide receiver still has a chance to be the face of the room, lining up anywhere from the outside, in the slot and even in the backfield.

There was no doubt that Wilson would be a top-tier receiver at Ohio State.

He was already viewed as one of the best of the country when he came out of Lake Travis High School, coming in wanting to be developed by Brian Hartline: a prime example of what it means to be successful at the college and the NFL level.

Wilson didn't do what Olave did in terms of being a record-breaking Ohio State wide receiver. He finished tied for eighth in school history with 143 receptions along with Parris Campbell, and seventh in school history with 23 touchdown receptions.

But that's not what Wilson's legacy is.

What Wilson is, more than anything, is what Hill and Campbell were at Ohio State's spring game, what Thomas is when he takes the field for the New Orleans Saints or even Williams when he took the field for Alabama last season: he's a product of what development in Hartline's room looks like.

It's the ultimate recruiting tool. something to rally a room around with countless examples, including Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka currently in the room.

That's what drives Wilson forward: matching the consistency of the players from that same room making the jump from Hartline's room to that next level with a smarter, more developed level of play, one set up to be successful at the next level.

He saw that in Hartline and the Buckeyes: a path to get to the NFL, to become the first receiver taken in his first opportunity to enter the NFL Draft.

“Ohio State has put me in a great position,” he said. “It’s really been everything I ever dreamed of.”