Ohio State won’t have to wait long to see its first player come off the board in the 2024 NFL draft. The wait for the second Buckeye to be drafted could be significantly longer.
With the 2024 NFL draft order now set following the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win over the San Francisco 49ers eight days ago, a bevy of NFL mock drafts have been published over the past week projecting how this year’s draft will play out. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any mock draft that doesn’t have Marvin Harrison Jr. as a top-four pick, but very few mock drafts have any other Buckeyes going in Round 1.
Most mock drafts that include at least three rounds have Mike Hall – Ohio State’s only other early draft entrant this year – as the second Buckeye off the board in either the second or third round. Cade Stover and Tommy Eichenberg are widely projected to be either third- or fourth-round picks, while Josh Proctor regularly appears as a Day 3 pick in seven-round mocks.
Those five Buckeyes are the only prospects from Ohio State who are consistently projected to be drafted this year, though Matt Jones and Miyan Williams have also appeared in recent mock drafts as projected late-round picks. Steele Chambers and Xavier Johnson did not appear in any of the recent seven-round mock drafts that we found.
For our post-Super Bowl edition of the NFL mock draft roundup, we compiled the projections for Ohio State’s draft prospects from each of the following 25 mock drafts, including five seven-round mocks, six three-round mocks, four two-round mocks and 10 one-round mocks. All of these mock drafts have been published within the last two weeks.
- Bleacher Report Scouting Department (1 round)
- CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso (1 round)
- CBS Sports’ Josh Edwards (1 round)
- CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson (1 round)
- Draft Countdown’s Shane Hallam (7 rounds)
- Draft Tek (7 rounds)
- Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy (2 rounds)
- ESPN’s Field Yates (1 round)
- ESPN’s Matt Miller (2 rounds)
- Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt (1 round)
- NFL.com’s Chad Reuter (3 rounds)
- NFL.com’s Dan Parr (1 round)
- Pro Football Focus’ Trevor Sikkema (2 rounds)
- Pro Football Network’s James Fragoza (7 rounds)
- Pro Football Network’s Ian Cummings (7 rounds)
- Pro Football Network’s Owain Jones (7 rounds)
- San Diego Union-Tribune’s Eddie Brown (2 rounds)
- Sporting News’ Vinnie Iyer (1 round)
- Tankathon (3 rounds)
- The 33rd Team’s Connor Livesay (3 rounds)
- The Athletic’s Nick Baumgardner (3 rounds)
- The Draft Network’s Damian Parson (1 round)
- Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar (1 round)
- Walter Football’s Charlie Campbell (3 rounds)
- Walter Football’s Walter Cherepinsky (3 rounds)
WR Marvin Harrison Jr.
No. 1, Chicago Bears: Farrar
No. 3, New England Patriots: 4 (Baumgardner, Brown, Parr, Trapasso)
No. 3, Chicago Bears: Reuter
No. 4, Arizona Cardinals: 19 (B/R, Campbell, Cherepinsky, Cummings, Draft Tek, Edwards, Fragoza, Hallam, Iyer, Jones, Klatt, Livesay, Miller, Parson, Popejoy, Sikkema, Tankathon, Wilson, Yates)
Every mock we found projects that Harrison will be a top-four pick in this year’s draft. Most mocks have Harrison going with the No. 4 overall pick to the Arizona Cardinals, where he’d reunite with his former teammate Paris Johnson Jr., the Cardinals’ 2023 first-round pick. No mock in this roundup has the Cardinals passing on Harrison, who is the first non-quarterback off the board in all 25 mocks we surveyed.
Only one of the 25 mocks has the Chicago Bears taking Harrison at No. 1 overall, as the vast majority of mocks have the Bears taking Caleb Williams with the top pick. NFL.com’s Chad Reuter projected that the Bears could trade back up into the top three after taking Williams by sending Justin Fields to the New England Patriots to move up from No. 9. Four mocks have the Patriots passing upon a quarterback with the third pick and taking Harrison themselves to fill their need for a No. 1 wide receiver.
DT Mike Hall
Round 1, No. 17, Jacksonville Jaguars: Cherepinsky
Round 1, No. 21, Miami Dolphins: Campbell
Round 2, No. 47, New York Giants: Tankathon
Round 2, No. 48, Jacksonville Jaguars: Fragoza
Round 2, No. 64, Kansas City Chiefs: Miller
Round 3, No. 69, Los Angeles Chargers: Baumgardner
Round 3, No. 70, New York Giants: Jones
Round 3, No. 74, Atlanta Falcons: Reuter
Round 3, No. 77, Las Vegas Raiders: Cummings
Round 3, No. 79, Atlanta Falcons: Draft Tek
Round 3, No. 80, Cincinnati Bengals: Livesay
Round 3, No. 90, Arizona Cardinals: Hallam
Both mock drafts at Walter Football have Hall going in the first round, but they’re the only ones who have Hall being selected that early. Hall is included in all 11 mock drafts in this roundup that project at least three rounds, but seven of those mock drafts have Hall going in the third round.
Coming off of a strong showing at the Senior Bowl, Hall – Ohio State’s only other early draft entrant this year along with Harrison – is the prospect most projected to be the second Buckeye off the board this year. Only one mock draft we found has another Buckeye other than Harrison being drafted ahead of Hall, whose best football could be in front of him as he projects to play his more natural 3-technique position in the NFL after playing primarily at nose tackle in Columbus.
Mike Hall is projected to be the second Buckeye off the board in this year’s NFL draft.
LB Tommy Eichenberg
Round 2, No. 51, Pittsburgh Steelers: Hallam
Round 3, No. 76, Seattle Seahawks: Campbell
Round 3, No. 86, Miami Dolphins: Cherepinsky
Round 3, No. 87, Dallas Cowboys: Draft Tek
Round 3, No. 100, Los Angeles Rams: Baumgardner
Round 3, No. 101, Washington Commanders: 2 (Reuter, Tankathon)
Round 4, No. 101, Carolina Panthers: Fragoza
Round 4, No. 118, Seattle Seahawks: Jones
Round 7, No. 241, Dallas Cowboys: Cummings
While Eichenberg’s draft projections range from as high as the second round to as low as the seventh round, the consensus projection for the reigning Big Ten Linebacker of the Year is that he will be a third- or fourth-round draft pick, where he lands in eight of the 10 mock drafts he appears on in this roundup.
The draft order varies slightly in some mocks depending on projected compensatory picks. Still, three mocks have Eichenberg going within the final two picks of the third round, while another has him going with the first pick of the fourth round, suggesting that the former Ohio State linebacker could be right on the bubble between hearing his name called late on Day 2 or early on Day 3.
TE Cade Stover
Round 3, No. 82, Indianapolis Colts: Draft Tek
Round 3, No. 86, Houston Texans: Reuter
Round 3, No. 90, Arizona Cardinals: Jones
Round 3, No. 101, Washington Commanders: Baumgardner
Round 4, No. 101, Carolina Panthers: Hallam
Round 4, No. 111, New York Jets: Cummings
Round 4, No. 115, Cincinnati Bengals: Fragoza
Stover’s draft projections are very similar to those of his close friend Eichenberg. All seven mock drafts in this roundup that Stover appears in have him going between the second half of the third round and the first half of the fourth round, suggesting that he, too, is on the bubble between being a late Day 2 pick or an early Day 3 selection.
Unlike Eichenberg, none of the seven-round mock drafts in this roundup have Stover falling below the fourth round. But there are also no mocks in this roundup that project Stover to go in the first two rounds.
S Josh Proctor
Round 4, No. 120, Pittsburgh Steelers: Hallam
Round 5, No. 162, Detroit Lions: Fragoza
Round 5, No. 175, Cincinnati Bengals: Draft Tek
Round 6, No. 192, Indianapolis Colts: Jones
Round 7, No. 222, Los Angeles Chargers: Cummings
Proctor isn’t projected to be selected in the first three rounds in any recent mock drafts, but he is unanimously projected to be drafted on Day 3 in the five seven-round mock drafts we found.
It’s a lot tougher to pinpoint where a player will be drafted after the first two days of the draft, and that volatility is reflected in the fact that Proctor’s five projections range from the fourth to seventh round with at least one in every round. There is a clear consensus, though, that Proctor’s improved play in his sixth and final season as a Buckeye was enough to get him drafted after a roller-coaster first five years at Ohio State.
Josh Proctor is projected to be a Day 3 pick and the fifth Buckeye selected in the 2024 NFL draft.
G Matt Jones
Round 6, No. 180, Tennessee Titans: Draft Tek
Draft Tek has Jones going in the sixth round to the Tennessee Titans, which would mean reuniting with former Ohio State teammate Nicholas Petit-Frere on the Titans’ offensive line. He does not appear in any other mock drafts in this roundup, however, suggesting that the former Ohio State right guard is very much on the bubble to potentially go undrafted.
RB Miyan Williams
Round 6, No. 194, Tennessee Titans: Draft Tek
Round 6, No. 201, Buffalo Bills: Hallam
Williams’ draft stock is tough to forecast as he saw limited playing time before suffering a season-ending knee injury in his final season at Ohio State. However, he showed enough in his first three seasons as a Buckeye that he’s still being projected as a sixth-round pick in multiple mock drafts.
The margin between being a sixth-round pick and an undrafted free agent is often a thin one, as evidenced by the fact that Williams does not appear in the other three seven-round mock drafts. Ultimately, the pre-draft process could make or break whether or not Williams gets drafted, as teams considering using a late-round pick on him will want to see whether he is healthy and ready to be the same player he was in his earlier years at Ohio State.
