Depth has been one of Ohio State’s top focuses this offseason in vying for a 16-game championship run. Depth is also not a concern one typically affiliates with the Buckeyes’ wide receiver room, which five first-round picks in the last three NFL drafts have passed through.
Yet Ryan Day continues to prioritize it as one of the spots where the Buckeyes need to develop more depth entering fall camp.
“We’re kind of top-heavy there,” Day said at Big Ten Media Days on Tuesday.
Behind returning star Emeka Egbuka, the trio of Carnell Tate, Brandon Inniss and the near-runaway hype train that is freshman Jeremiah Smith are competing to start at receiver, though all four are likely to see substantial playing time. Day lofted some high praise Inniss’ way in Indianapolis.
Outside of those four, however, Day wants to see more progression from Ohio State’s backup wide receivers, particularly Jayden Ballard, Bryson Rodgers and Kojo Antwi.
Surprisingly, one doesn’t have to look far into the past to discover times when Ohio State felt thin at receiver. Egbuka, who caught 1,151 yards worth of passes in 2022, went down with an injury against Maryland in 2023 and missed three games.
There were times during that stretch when Marvin Harrison Jr. felt like a one-man show at the position for the Buckeyes. Julian Fleming made a limited impact with less than 300 yards despite playing 12 games in 2023, Carnell Tate flashed as a freshman but still never caught more than three passes in a contest and no one else had at least 200 yards receiving for the year.
While Egbuka was out against Wisconsin, Ohio State’s wide receivers had 156 total receiving yards and Harrison accounted for 123 of them. Against Penn State, Harrison hauled in 162 of the 198 receiving yards by Buckeye wideouts.
One of the players absent from those totals is the redshirt junior Ballard. He didn’t catch a single pass in 2023 after totaling eight receptions, 155 yards and one touchdown in mop-up duty in 2022. All offseason it’s felt like a now-or-never year for the native Ohioan to make an impact.
“Jayden Ballard is another guy who's been in the program a while. We need him to step up and make an impact,” Day said. “He is a down-the-field threat with great speed. And again, this is somebody that's been in our program. And I think that's another part of this team that we have, is these guys have been in the program for a while now. So there's been a lot of built-up springs and summers and practices and development along the way. And so we need JB to step up. And he's been charged with that challenge along the way.”
“He is a down-the-field threat with great speed. ... We need JB to step up. And he's been charged with that challenge along the way.”– Ryan Day on Jayden Ballard
Rodgers is the third remaining receiver from the Buckeyes’ 2023 recruiting class alongside Tate and Inniss. The lowest rated of the team’s four receiver signees (Noah Rogers has since transferred to N.C. State) in that class at 347th nationally, Rodgers has impressed his coaches since entering and then returning from the transfer portal this offseason.
“Bryson Rodgers is another guy that gives us some playmaking ability in the slot,” Day said. “He's gotten bigger. He's gotten stronger. He needs to continue to play that way because he has the ability to run routes and get open against anybody in the country, in my opinion.”
Antwi is the last bastion remaining from another four-signee wide receiver class in 2022 after Caleb Burton, Kaleb Brown and Kyion Grayes all transferred out. No one from the quartet has seen anything more than garbage time at Ohio State, but Antwi will hope to change that this season. Five-star freshman Mylan Graham arrived this summer to round out the Buckeyes’ scholarship contingent in the room.
“Kojo Antwi is somebody that has to step up as well,” Day said. “And then we have some other young guys in there that have an opportunity to do that. So that four, five, six, and seven is going to be critical in solidifying the wide receiver depth.”
Graham’s managed to impress Egbuka with his approach in the short time since he arrived in Columbus, but the first-year receiver is still yet to go through his first practice with the Buckeyes.
“He hasn’t been here too long but he’s kind of a quiet kid, goes about his business,” Egbuka said. “He came in and you didn't really know what he was thinking because he was so quiet. But he's taken the work to heart. It's not in one ear and out the other with him. It's in one ear and he goes to work.”
With so many first- and second-year receivers lining up to make an impact for Ohio State, Egbuka feels a duty to help uplift those younger players.
“I try to give little bits and pieces of what I learned from here throughout the years to the young guys,” Egbuka said. “Just be a big brother, role model for them. It's something I definitely don't take lightly because I know how much Garrett (Wilson) and Chris (Olave) meant to me, and Jaxon (Smith-Njigba). So I'm trying to be that for those guys. It's not too hard when you have such special talents like that.”
Filling out the second and third rows on Ohio State’s wide receiver depth chart may not be front of mind for many fans with the flash and excitement surrounding what’s on the top line, but it’s no less important as the team loads up with the options it will need at every position entering 2024.
