Ohio State football players, like the players at any big time college football program are aware of how they rate in the NFL mock drafts. Every player at every school claims they don’t pay attention to the mocks, or read the op-eds, or have basic awareness of their stats, yadda yadda yadda.
Don’t believe that noise for a second. Maybe a lot of players don’t aggressively seek out information about themselves directly, but they have family, friends, hangers-on etc. that do. And that means such publicity is often brought to their attention.
If you saw the movie “Draft Day,” an NFL infomercial disguised as a Hollywood mainstream theatrical release, you might recall the scene with the prospect who was talking about where he ranked in the mocks. One of the leaders of Ohio State football, OL Taylor Decker was asked if he and his teammates see a lot of the NFL Draft projections.
“yeah, I have, but it’s so early, they don’t even know who’s going to pick where yet, some guys are going to have a good year, some are going to have a bad, there’s so much variable to it,” Decker responded.
The reporter pointed out how there are a ridiculous amount of Ohio State football players listed in the mocks (such as in our 2016 NFL mock draft here)
“It’s cool to see, and I hope it happens but I got to go to camp in a week and that’s going to suck. So I got to take care of the here and now, if I take care of that, hopefully the future will be bright.”
This is the closest you’ll ever come to hearing a player admit they’re aware of mock drafts and their NFL draft stock.
We’re not saying all of these Ohio State football players will be first round picks, but a few of them will, and all ten on this list could get there in 2016 or 2017, if they play their cards right.
1. DL Joey Bosa
Still often projected at #1 overall, despite the suspension. ESPN had a source saying Bosa is out due to a marijuana offense, so it’s tricky to predict how that will affect his draft stock. See Shane Ray and Randy Gregory.
2. QB Cardale Jones
The only one of the three quarterbacks with a NFL future at that position, he’s also the only signal caller who had a legitimate case and eligibility to declare, had he wanted to.
3. OT Taylor Decker
“I think a big thing they look for is do you improve as a player year to year,” said Decker at Big Ten Media Day.
“I had a decent projection coming out of this year, but I want to improve upon it. If they sense complacency, it won’t improve my stock at all.”
Decker seems to be a consensus first-round pick based on most mocks that we’ve seen.
4. OLB Josh Perry
One of the three players Urban Meyer elected to bring to Big Ten Media Day, he had the best soundbite of anybody there. You can read that here.
5. RB Ezekiel Elliot
Could be one of the top three tailbacks taken. The question is- how many running backs could honestly go in the first round?
6. LB Raekwon McMillan
His name, in all its Key & Peele style “East West College Bowl” glory, alone should get him drafted. But seriously the sky is the limit for this 5-star respect.
7. DL Adolphus Washington
He admitted at Media Day that he wasn’t ready for the NFL last year, because he really wasn’t aware that he had much NFL Draft stock then. Washington has been picked by many to be first team All-American. That will get you into the early rounds.
8. OL Pat Eiflein
We had to put one longs hot Ohio State football player on this list and it was a toss up between Eiflein and Nick Vannett, who’s rated the third best pro prospect tight end in this class.
9. DB Vonn Bell
Didn’t start the opener last year, but really saw his stock take off as the season went on.
10. LB Darron Lee
Another late riser, the redshirt sophomore is a potential early entry candidate now.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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