The history of former Ohio State players getting selected in the top three overall picks of an NFL draft puts the impressiveness of the accomplishment into perspective.
Chase Young and Jeff Okudah went back-to-back at No. 2 and No. 3 on Thursday night. Before them, Joey Bosa went third overall in 2016 and Nick Bosa got picked second overall in 2019. Yet between 1980 and 2015, Ohio State only had three players – Dan Wilkinson in 1994 and Orlando Pace and Shawn Springs in 1997 – picked inside the top three picks.
To have two Buckeyes go top three in a single year is absurd, and it only becomes crazier when considering Joe Burrow – who went No. 1 overall to the Cincinnati Bengals – spent his first three years at Ohio State. This, naturally, was the first draft ever in which the top three picks were all college teammates.
Going top three in the NFL draft is a rare achievement, yet there are several players on Ohio State's roster with the potential to follow in Young and Okudah's footsteps and become top-three overall picks themselves.
Most Likely Candidates
Justin Fields
If Fields has a junior season that mirrors what he did as a sophomore first-year starter, he’ll go within the first three picks of the 2021 NFL draft. It’s hard to ever argue a year ahead of time that anybody’s a lock for something like that. But Fields is darn close.
The Heisman Trophy finalist is the total package. He’s got an arm quarterbacks dream of that helped him to a 41-touchdown, three-interception 2019 season, and when he needs to run, he does so with 4.4-second 40-yard dash speed. Expect to see his name among the first three picks in a bunch of the way-too-early mock drafts that’ll drop in the next week or two.
Zach Harrison
Of the four top-three overall picks Ohio State has produced in the past six NFL drafts, three came straight off the Larry Johnson Assembly Line of Defensive Linemen. Harrison wants to be next, and given the combination of his natural gifts with the technical skills he’ll learn in Columbus, you can see the path.
The No. 12 overall prospect in the recruiting class of 2019, Harrison's next step as a rising sophomore is to take a significant step forward as a sophomore, just like Young did two years ago. With Young gone, it’s Harrison's turn to take the spotlight.
Paris Johnson Jr.
Maybe it’s ridiculous to consider a true freshman who hasn’t played a single collegiate snap as one of Ohio State’s three most likely candidates to become a top-three overall draft pick in the future. But given the constant compliments that Johnson receives from just about everybody who has ever crossed paths with him – including, most recently, Ohio State offensive line coach Greg Studrawa, who heaped praise upon him during a teleconference this week – it might not be crazy.
Johnson entered the program in January as the nation’s No. 9 overall recruit, and the top-rated offensive lineman, and he’s openly discussed being on a three-year track to the NFL. Bet against him at your own risk.
If Things Go Their Way, There’s A Chance…
CJ Stroud/Jack Miller
As long as Ryan Day coaches Ohio State, every quarterback that comes through the program will be viewed as a touted NFL draft prospect. That’s the track record he's built with Dwayne Haskins and Fields.
Whether it’s Stroud or Miller who wins the competition to replace Fields as the starter in 2021, they’ll have the potential to turn into a future first-round pick. If that doesn’t happen, it’d be a surprise. Might one of them end up going No. 1, 2 or 3 in three or four years? Maybe, if they reach their ceiling.
Shaun Wade
Maybe Wade goes full Jeff Okudah in 2020, shooting his NFL draft stock to a level where this becomes a legitimate discussion. It’s not out of the question. Wade thrived in the slot last year, and now he’ll shift outside as Ohio State’s top cornerback, where Day has said he thinks Wade will be the country’s best cornerback and compete for the Jim Thorpe Award.
But he’s going to enter a 2021 NFL draft pool that will already include Fields and Trevor Lawrence, both of whom are expected to occupy two of the three top picks. Oregon offensive tackle Penei Sewell, the first sophomore to ever win the Outland Trophy, will also be in the mix. Wade would need an otherworldly redshirt junior season to leap into the top three.
Longshots
Chris Olave/Garrett Wilson/Julian Fleming/Jaxon Smith-Njigba
No one can downplay the talent in Brian Hartline’s position room.
Olave has his sights on becoming the nation’s best wide receiver as a junior next season. Wilson flashed uncommon ball skills while catching 30 passes as a freshman last season. Fleming was the No. 3 overall prospect in the 2020 recruiting cycle. Smith-Njigba turned into a five-star prospect by turning in a 104-reception, 2,094-yard, 35-touchdown senior season as Texas’ 6A State Player of the Year.
Wide receivers, though, rarely go in the top three. Though five wideouts – Calvin Johnson, Braylon Edwards, Larry Fitzgerald, Charles Rogers and Andre Johnson – got picked second or third overall between 2003 and 2007, no receivers have been taken among the top three selections in the past 13 years. History just isn’t in the favor of Ohio State’s wideouts.
Tyreke Smith
Through two seasons, Smith hasn’t really gotten going in the way many believed – and still believe he will – as a pass-rusher. He played 183 sack-free snaps as a freshman then picked up only three sacks in an injury-marred sophomore season. But if a breakout year comes, depending on how productive he becomes, Smith's NFL stock will rapidly ascend.
Can it reach top-three overall status? Probably not. But Smith, once the No. 34 overall recruit in his class, has now has spent multiple years working with Johnson. We haven't yet seen what he can do in a full healthy season.
Wyatt Davis
In all likelihood, Davis won't have a shot to go top three regardless of how well he plays as a redshirt junior next season. That's the nature of his position. But he was once the top-rated guard prospect in his high school class and earned first-team All-American honors in his first season as a starter. If anybody can break the norm, it's Davis.
Dawand Jones
Let's get crazy.
If Jones can ever put it all together, he'll have NFL teams salivating. At 6-foot-8 and over 360 pounds with enough athleticism to earn multiple Division I basketball offers, he has every physical trait coaches could want in an offensive tackle. But he's the underdog in the competition to start at right tackle in 2020, meaning he still has a long way to go.
