With the NFL Scouting Combine in the rear-view mirror, there’s a clear consensus on where each of Ohio State’s top two prospects will end up in the 2019 NFL draft.
Take a look at NFL mock drafts around the web, and the same two landing spots are projected for the Buckeyes’ two likely top-10 picks far more often than not: Nick Bosa to the San Francisco 49ers, and Dwayne Haskins to the New York Giants.
Beyond them, the other Buckeye who now looks to be the most likely to join Bosa and Haskins in the first round is Parris Campbell, who is increasingly garnering first-round mock draft projections after a spectacular performance at the combine in which he tied for the fastest 40-yard dash among all wide receivers (4.31 seconds) and was also among the event’s top performers in the broad jump (11 feet, 3 inches), vertical jump (40 inches) and 20-yard shuttle (4.03 seconds), putting his elite athleticism on display.
Dre’Mont Jones also has a chance to be a first-round pick, though he’s mostly projected to be selected in the second half of the second round as of now.
With NFL free agency officially starting Wednesday, and many players already agreeing to deals with new teams, the moves that are made over the next couple weeks will have an impact on each team’s needs for the 2019 NFL draft, and could influence where players ultimately end up in April.
The combine, though, is the only time before the draft that all the top prospects will be together in one setting – and an opportunity for some of the media’s top NFL draft insiders to gather intel that shape their draft projections – which makes it a good time to check in on where each of Ohio State’s top prospects are projected to be selected as of now.
For this edition of the NFL Mock Draft Roundup, we took a look at the following 16 mock drafts, all of which have been published since the NFL Scouting Combine and whose projections are detailed below:
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s D. Orlando Ledbetter (1 round)
- Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller (1 round)
- CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso (2 rounds)
- CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson (2 rounds)
- Draft Tek (7 rounds)
- The Draft Wire’s Luke Easterling (4 rounds)
- ESPN’s Todd McShay (1 round)
- NFL.com’s Chad Reuter (1 round)
- NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah (1 round)
- NJ.com’s Matt Lombardo (2 rounds)
- Rotoworld’s Josh Norris (1 round)
- SB Nation’s Dan Kadar (1 round)
- The Athletic’s Dane Brugler (1 round)
- The Athletic Beat Writers (1 round)
- The Draft Network’s Joe Marino (1 round)
- The Draft Network’s Kyle Crabbs (2 rounds)
Nick Bosa, DE
Crabbs: Round 1, No. 1 overall, Arizona Cardinals
Ledbetter: Round 1, No. 1 overall, Arizona Cardinals
The Athletic: Round 1, No. 1 overall, Arizona Cardinals
McShay: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Miller: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Jeremiah: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Reuter: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Easterling: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Kadar: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Lombardo: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Brugler: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Marino: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Norris: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Trapasso: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Wilson: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Draft Tek: Round 1, No. 2 overall, San Francisco 49ers
While Bosa was once considered the frontrunner to be the Arizona Cardinals’ selection with the No. 1 overall pick, many NFL insiders now believe that the Cardinals plan to draft Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray with the top pick in the draft, as all but four of the 16 mock drafts we surveyed project.
Unlike our first NFL Mock Draft Roundup in February, when six out of 12 mock drafts projected Bosa to be the top pick, he’s only projected to be the top pick in three out of 16 mock drafts now, with Easterling projecting that the Cardinals will select Alabama defensive tackle Quinnen Williams with the top choice.
What every one of these draft prognosticators agrees on, though, is that Bosa will be a top-two draft selection. The 49ers could certainly use a difference-making defensive end like Bosa, so if the Cardinals choose to draft Murray or someone else instead, San Francisco will likely pounce on the opportunity to draft the former Buckeye, who most analysts consider to be the draft’s best overall player.
Dwayne Haskins, QB
Reuter: Round 1, No. 3 overall, New York Giants
Easterling: Round 1, No. 3 overall, New York Giants
Lombardo: Round 1, No. 3 overall, New York Giants
McShay: Round 1, No. 6 overall, New York Giants
Miller: Round 1, No. 6 overall, New York Giants
Jeremiah: Round 1, No. 6 overall, New York Giants
Kadar: Round 1, No. 6 overall, New York Giants
Brugler: Round 1, No. 6 overall, New York Giants
Ledbetter: Round 1, No. 6 overall, New York Giants
Wilson: Round 1, No. 6 overall, New York Giants
The Athletic: Round 1, No. 6 overall, New York Giants
Draft Tek: Round 1, No. 6 overall, New York Giants
Norris: Round 1, No. 7 overall, Jacksonville Jaguars
Trapasso: Round 1, No. 10 overall, Denver Broncos
Marino: Round 1, No. 11 overall, Cincinnati Bengals
Crabbs: Round 1, No. 15 overall, Washington Redskins
The New York Giants were already the consensus projected landing spot for Haskins in our February mock draft roundup, and that consensus has only gotten stronger since the combine. It’s time that the Giants should be looking to draft Eli Manning’s successor to be their next starting quarterback, and Haskins – a New Jersey native and the draft’s best pocket passer – is seemingly a perfect fit.
With Murray now widely projected to be the No. 1 overall pick, the Giants might need to trade up in order to secure their chance to draft Haskins – the only other quarterback widely projected to be a top pick – which is why Easterling, Lombardo and Reuter all have the Giants trading with the team they share a stadium with, the New York Jets, to move up to the No. 3 overall pick.
Because none of the teams currently picking in the top five are expected to draft Haskins, however, there’s still a good chance that the Giants will have the opportunity to select Haskins at the sixth pick unless another team trades up in front of them to select him.
Only four of the 16 mock drafts that we surveyed have the Giants passing up on Haskins, but if they do, the Jaguars, Broncos, Bengals and Redskins are all teams that could also be in the market for their quarterback of the future (though the Jaguars seem unlikely now after they reportedly agreed to a four-year, $88 million deal with Nick Foles on Monday).
Parris Campbell, WR
Jeremiah: Round 1, No. 22 overall, Baltimore Ravens
McShay: Round 1, No. 27 overall, Oakland Raiders
Brugler: Round 1, No. 30 overall, Green Bay Packers
Wilson: Round 2, No. 36 overall, San Francisco 49ers
Lombardo: Round 2, No. 38 overall, Jacksonville Jaguars
Draft Tek: Round 2, No. 40 overall, Buffalo Bills
Trapasso: Round 2, No. 46 overall, Washington Redskins
Easterling: Round 3, No. 70 overall, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
While Bosa and Haskins were already widely projected to be top-six picks before the combine, and simply solidified their standing as top prospects in Indianapolis, Campbell is the Buckeye who appears to be making a real move up draft boards after an excellent combine performance.
Campbell was not projected as a first-round pick in any of the 12 mock drafts we surveyed in February, but is now projected as a first-round pick by three of the industry’s most connected NFL draft insiders – Daniel Jeremiah, Todd McShay and Dane Brugler – and was projected to be selected no later than the middle of the second round in all but two of the mock drafts we surveyed that include two rounds or more.
There’s no consensus landing spot for Campbell – and McShay’s projected landing spot, the Raiders, is probably less likely now that they made a big move to trade for one of the NFL’s best wide receivers, Antonio Brown – but it now appears very much within the realm of possibility that Campbell could be a late first-round pick, and it will be a surprise if he isn’t selected in the first two rounds.
Dre’Mont Jones, DT
Norris: Round 1, No. 28 overall, Los Angeles Chargers
Easterling: Round 2, No. 50 overall, Minnesota Vikings
Lombardo: Round 2, No. 50 overall, Minnesota Vikings
Draft Tek: Round 2, No. 50 overall, Minnesota Vikings
Trapasso: Round 2, No. 56 overall, New England Patriots
It’s unusual to see a consensus landing spot for a player who is widely projected to be drafted in the middle of the second round, but the popular projection for Jones in mock drafts so far has been the Minnesota Vikings’ 50th overall pick, where he lands in three of the five mock drafts that included the Ohio State defensive tackle this time around.
Even though the Vikings already drafted one defensive tackle from Ohio State last year, when they selected Jalyn Holmes in the fourth round and moved him inside, they are likely to be in the market for another defensive tackle – particularly, one like Jones who is a disruptive interior penetrator – after reportedly losing Sheldon Richardson to the Cleveland Browns in free agency.
It’s still possible that Jones could sneak into the late first round of the draft, but with unspectacular testing results at the combine and a draft class of defensive linemen that’s loaded with top prospects, it appears more likely that he will end up somewhere in Round 2.
Michael Jordan, OL
Draft Tek: Round 3, No. 77 overall, Carolina Panthers
Terry McLaurin, WR
Draft Tek: Round 4, No. 108 overall, New York Giants
Easterling: Round 4, No. 115 overall, Carolina Panthers
Isaiah Prince, OT
Draft Tek: Round 4, No. 117 overall, Atlanta Falcons
Mike Weber, RB
Draft Tek: Round 4, No. 129 overall, Dallas Cowboys
There haven’t been many seven-round mock drafts published since the NFL Scouting Combine, so we don’t have a good range of projections to look at for the Buckeyes who aren’t projected to be selected in the first two rounds. Draft Tek’s most recent computer simulation, however, projects that eight Buckeyes will be selected in the 2019 NFL draft – all within the first four rounds.
Once you get past the second round, it’s exceedingly difficult to project where a player ultimately will ultimately land, but Jordan, McLaurin, Prince and Weber all appear as though they should at least be drafted within the middle rounds.
Two other Buckeyes who should have a shot to be drafted, though they weren’t included in Draft Tek’s seven-round projection, are cornerback Kendall Sheffield and wide receiver Johnnie Dixon. Sheffield has been projected to be selected as early as the third round in earlier mock drafts, but he missed out on his chance to solidify himself as a middle-round pick when he suffered a partial pectoral tear during the bench press at the combine, which prevented him from participating in an on-field workout and could prevent him from participating in Ohio State’s March 20 pro day, as well.
