During the 2017 Ohio State football season, Joe Burrow was the Buckeyes’ third-string quarterback while Chase Young and Jeff Okudah were true freshmen who played only occasionally.
Less than three years later, they’re set to be three of the top picks – maybe the top three picks – in the 2020 NFL draft.
While Burrow went on to finish his collegiate career at LSU, where he led the Tigers to a national championship and won the Heisman Trophy, Young and Okudah became superstars in Columbus. Both of them were unanimous All-Americans in 2019, when they led an Ohio State defense that led the nation in yards allowed per game, and established themselves as consistently dominant players who might now be the surest bets among all players in this year’s NFL draft class.
When Roger Goodell calls out each of their names during the NFL’s virtual draft proceedings on Thursday night – calls that should come shortly after the draft’s 8 p.m. start for all three of them – they’ll have plenty of proud supporters from the Ohio State football program, including director of player personnel Mark Pantoni, who played a role in recruiting all three of them.
“That’s why we do what we do,” Pantoni said earlier this month. “Guys we recruit early on and hopefully they come here, develop and accomplish their dreams. And you couldn’t ask for better situations for those three guys … All three of those guys are well deserving. They’re all elite competitors, they’re all great kids and they have great futures ahead of them in the NFL.”
Burrow’s opportunity to prove he was an elite quarterback, which is expected to culminate with him being selected by the Cincinnati Bengals with the No. 1 overall pick on Thursday night, didn’t come until he was at LSU, so while the Buckeyes can take credit for identifying his talent as a four-star recruit out of Athens, Ohio, they can only take partial credit for developing him into a top draft pick.
Okudah and Young, though, are exactly where they expected to be – well, except for the fact that they aren’t actually able to attend an in-person draft this year due to COVID-19 – when they arrived at Ohio State as five-star recruits in 2017. Both of them were viewed as potential first-round NFL draft picks from the moment they stepped on campus, and both of them performed up to the hype and then some.
That’s not just because of their talent, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day says, but because of how hard they worked during their three years in Columbus.
“They’re both great people, good leaders,” Day said. “They’re tough. They’re durable. They don’t miss practice. They don’t miss games, they don’t miss snaps. They just play. So I think you’re gonna get a lot of production out of both of those players, and I think they’re both can’t-miss guys.”
If Young is selected by the Washington Redskins as expected, he’ll become the second straight Ohio State defensive end to be selected with the No. 2 overall pick, following Nick Bosa last year. Ohio State will become the first school to have defensive players selected in the top five picks in three consecutive drafts, and Young will become Ohio State’s fifth overall top-five pick in a five-year span, joining 2018 No. 4 overall pick Denzel Ward, 2016 No. 3 overall pick Joey Bosa and 2016 No. 4 overall pick Ezekiel Elliott.
Chase Young is expected to be the second straight Ohio State defensive end to be the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL draft.
Okudah could become the sixth, which would mark just the third time Ohio State has ever had two top-five picks in the same draft. If he goes to the Detroit Lions with the No. 3 overall pick, as many mock drafts project, Ohio State will become the first school ever to have two top-three picks in two separate drafts, having previously accomplished that feat in 1997, when Orlando Pace was the No. 1 overall pick and Shawn Springs was the No. 3 overall pick.
Young and Okudah will be Ohio State’s 82nd and 83rd first-round picks all-time, which will break the tie with USC (at least temporarily) for the most first-round picks in NFL draft history. It will also be the fifth straight year that Ohio State has at least two players drafted in the first round.
There’s an outside chance Ohio State could have a third first-round pick on Thursday night, but if not, J.K. Dobbins and Damon Arnette should both come off the board in Friday’s second round.
Dobbins is one of four running backs who are projected to be selected between the late first round and the middle of the second round, along with Georgia’s D’Andre Swift, LSU’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor. Which order those running backs could simply depend on the preferences of whichever teams are in position to draft running backs first, but Dobbins’ record-setting 2,003-yard final season at Ohio State and well-rounded skill set shouldn’t ensure his draft wait won’t last much longer than early on Day 2.
“I don’t know the other guys, really, in the draft, in terms of like where he compares with those people, but from what I’m hearing, he’s got a chance to be the first guy taken in the running backs,” Day said. “I think he’s gonna project really well, because I think his skill set is versatile. He can do a lot of things. He can run the zone scheme, he can run the gap scheme, he can protect, he can run routes. I think he’s kind of shown that he can do all those things, and he’s such a great kid with a great work ethic.”
Arnette, meanwhile, is projected to be drafted somewhere within a crowded second tier of cornerbacks including Clemson’s A.J. Terrell, LSU’s Kristian Fulton, TCU’s Jeff Gladney, Alabama’s Trevon Diggs, Utah’s Jaylon Johnson and Auburn’s Noah Igbinoghene, all of whom could be selected between the late first round and second round. He’s not a universally beloved draft prospect because of his inconsistent play prior to his excellent senior season at Ohio State, but it only takes one team for him to be a high draft pick, and he has two big advocates in his corner in Day and Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs.
“To say that there’s a lot of better corners in the country than Damon Arnette, I’d love to see them,” Day said. “You talk about competitive and versatility and just toughness, the way he played all season, I want him on my team.”
Coombs, when asked about Arnette on Wednesday, said “don’t be surprised how high he gets drafted.”
“Damon Arnette is going to be a very, very good professional football player,” said Coombs, who spent the past two years coaching the Tennessee Titans’ secondary before returning to Ohio State. “I think Damon has made tremendous strides personally. I think his work ethic has climbed off-the-charts. And he is a tough, competitive player. He’s more savvy and more smart probably than people give him credit for.
“I think Damon Arnette is going to be a very, very good pro, and I think he’s going to have a very long career. He’s got versatility, he’s going to be able to play inside-outside, I’m excited to watch him.”
Damon Arnette is projected to be a first- or second-round pick in this year's NFL draft.
Regardless of whether Dobbins and Arnette are selected in the first or second round, Friday should be a busy day for former Buckeyes, as defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton, linebacker Malik Harrison, guard Jonah Jackson and wide receiver K.J. Hill are also all candidates to potentially be selected in the second or third round.
If any of those players fall out of the third round, they shouldn’t have to wait long to get selected on Saturday, when the final four rounds of the draft will be held, as they’re all considered locks to be drafted. Given that, 2020 will certainly be the fifth consecutive year that Ohio State has at least seven players drafted, and it also looks like a safe bet that the Buckeyes will have at least five top-100 picks for the fifth year in a row.
None of Ohio State’s other draft prospects are expected to come off the board before the late rounds on Saturday, but there as many as eight other Buckeyes who should land with teams by the end of the weekend as either late-round picks or undrafted free agents: safety Jordan Fuller, wide receivers Binjimen Victor and Austin Mack, tight end Rashod Berry, offensive tackle Branden Bowen, defensive tackles Jashon Cornell and Robert Landers and long snapper Liam McCullough.
Fuller is probably the most likely candidate to be the ninth Buckeye drafted, while Victor and Mack are also squarely in the mix for potential late-round picks after participating in the NFL Scouting Combine. Berry, Bowen, Cornell, Landers and McCullough might face longer odds after they weren’t invited to the combine and Ohio State’s pro day was canceled, but all of them should get a shot to play at the next level, and even those who go undrafted will likely have free-agent deals lined up by the end of Saturday night.
As long as one of those eight players are among the draft’s 255 picks, Ohio State will match its total of nine draft picks from last year. If two or more of them are selected, Ohio State will have double-digit draft picks for the first time since 2016 – when 12 Buckeyes were drafted all within the first four rounds – and for just the third time since the draft was shortened to seven rounds in 1994.
“I just think a lot of guys who are in this draft, whether they get drafted or even some of those free agents, are going to be hanging around the NFL for a long time for a lot of reasons,” Day said.
Ohio State already has one of the NFL’s largest contingents among college football programs, with 48 players currently on NFL roster who completed their careers with the Buckeyes, and by the end of the weekend, that number will likely climb over 60.
As has long been tradition for the Buckeyes, but especially in recent years, Ohio State is set to be one of the most well-represented schools in the NFL draft once again, and another large group of players who wore the scarlet and gray – from Jackson for just one year after transferring from Rutgers, to five-year Buckeyes like Arnette, Hamilton and Hill – will officially achieve their dreams of becoming professional football players and have the opportunity to continue playing the sport at its highest level.
Round 1 of the 2020 NFL draft begins at 8 p.m. Thursday, the second and third rounds will be held Friday beginning at 7 p.m. and Rounds 4-7 are scheduled for a noon start on Saturday. All seven rounds will be televised on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network, with Young, Okudah and Dobbins all set to be featured on the broadcast as three of the 58 virtual participants in this year’s draft.
