What Ohio State football’s small 2024 NFL Draft class tells us about the potential fireworks on the way: Buckeye Talk Podcast

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The 2024 NFL Draft is over, and on this Buckeye Talk episode, Stephen Means and Nathan Baird wrap up the final picks for Ohio State.

OSU just experienced its smallest draft number in over a decade, but could it come with a silver lining? Following a year where only four players heard their name called — of the nine hoping to — the program could be gearing up for fireworks in 2025 with one more thing to check off over the next year.

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Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.

Stephen Means (00:02.414)

Alright.

Stephen Means (00:08.629)

Welcome back to Buckeye Talk. I’m Stephen Means. That’s Nathan Baird. And this is your official wrap up of the 2024 NFL draft. Ohio State had nine guys hoping to get drafted. They ended up with four. When we did our prediction, we all predicted five players. Ended up with four, Marvin Harrison Jr. Number four picked to the Cardinals. Nathan, you had him go into the Chargers at number five. And Andrew and I both had him go into the Cardinals. Michael Hall Jr.

Nathan and I had him going 52nd to the Rams. Andrew had him going 49th to the Bengals. He ends up, well, we all get half a point because Andrew at least had him staying in the state and we both had him in the 50s. So ends up going 54 to the Cleveland Browns, the only second round draft pick, which they went got Zach Center later on and that’s in the third round, which was kind of cool. And they’re like playing on it right now. The fact that they’re going from rivals to being teammates at this point, they did like a step brothers bit on Twitter.

Cade Stover, I had him 95th to the Kansas City Chiefs. Nathan, you had him 102 to Seattle. Andrew had him at Washington at 100. Falls a little bit, kind of fell amongst the tight ends because there was a bit of a tight end run there. 123rd to the Houston Texans in the fourth round. So he does reconnect with CJ Stroud. And then Tommy Eichenberg going earlier than all of us had him expected to go. Andrew and I sent him to the Steelers at 178th. And then Nathan, you had him 176 to the San Francisco 49ers. He ends up going to the Raiders.

at 1.48.

in the fifth round and the only other guy we predicted Josh Proctor, Adam 245 to the Packers, you had him to 19 to the Packers. Andrew 250th to the Ravens. He doesn’t get drafted. Xavier Johnson also doesn’t get drafted. Steel Chambers, Matthew Jones, Mayan Williams also don’t get drafted as well. Get the text 614-350-3315. We’re recording this right after the NFL draft. So some of the undrafted free agent stuff is still happening. So if we’re not, we’ll probably mention it throughout this part of stuff happens while we’re recording. But that information is going to go through the text first.

Stephen Means (02:02.831)

just for the sake of throwing him out there. Ryan Watts, former Ohio State football player, transferred to Texas with 195 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the sixth round. And then Gervonta Jean-Baptiste, a former defensive lineman who transferred to Notre Dame for his final year, goes to the commanders at 222 in the seventh round. But for Ohio State, Nathan, four guys, that’s the first time they’ve been under five since 2013. So we’re talking.

the first year of the Urban Meyer era, that first drive, draft, that’s the first time they didn’t go that way. You called it incomplete before the draft.

It’s probably lived up to that. And we’ll get into why along in a sec. We’re gonna do a lot more looking forward because it was very clear. I think we prepared people well that this was probably going to be a short drive. Any shockers amongst those four, not short, but you know. Smaller, yeah, it was short, it was long. Yeah, this was ridiculous. Yeah, man, it’s, we’re recording a, yeah, small class for Ohio State. Any shockers amongst that group though, maybe?

Nathan Baird (02:53.43)

Yeah, it wasn’t short. I watched every freaking second of the thing. It was just as long as all the others. Small. Small class for Ohio State is what you mean to say.

Stephen Means (03:08.105)

going higher, going lower than you were expecting.

Nathan Baird (03:11.822)

No, I wouldn’t say anything there shocked me. We were in the right ballpark on everybody. As you said, Eichenberg did go like almost, we were all thinking like low fifth round. He went high fifth round. So at least we were all in the fifth round on him. And, you know, Proctor, I guess going undrafted isn’t a shock. We maybe we’re all just a little overly optimistic on that. But again, with guys like that...

Once you get down into the end of the sixth and on into the seventh round, it’s nice to say that you were a draft pick, but now you get to control your destiny a little bit more. You get to have your pick of teams. I’m not saying every, I’m not saying all 32 teams will want you, but you can kind of pick your spot from among maybe a couple of offers as opposed to just taking the one that grabs you. So, um,

He’ll be on someone’s, he’ll get some kind of an undrafted free agent. The only one that’s happened so far is Avery Johnson, according to Jordan Schultz from Bleacher Report is signing with the Vills on some kind of undrafted free agent deal. There’s obviously, there’s a range of things that guys get at this stage. Sometimes it’s a true undrafted free agent deal. You probably remember a few years ago when, God, who was it? Outside linebacker.

Nathan Baird (04:33.634)

How am I blank? This is the second time I’ve blanked on his name on this podcast in the past like six months.

Nathan Baird (04:43.106)

Anyway, signed a nice free agent deal with the 49ers right after the draft. I’ll think of it. So sometimes it’s kind of a preferred deal. But oftentimes it’s, you know, they’re kind of standard deals. But yeah, I would expect Proctor, I would expect Steel Chambers, and maybe my Williams, I assume. I don’t know exactly where he stands injury wise right now. But Matt Jones, like all those guys I would think would probably get some kind of a UFA look.

Stephen Means (05:17.769)

Okay, so we’re not gonna break down guy for guy because that’s

Nathan Baird (05:19.458)

Justin Hilliard. Justin Hilliard is a name I forgot. And I forgot him before, and he deserves better than that. Justin Hilliard. Didn’t even have to look it up, it just struck me like a lightning bolt, finally.

Stephen Means (05:29.093)

I forgot. I was having a conversation with somebody about Justin Hilliard a couple of weeks ago about and I couldn’t remember his name at the time. I think we were talking about best environments, road game environments, and I just couldn’t remember for the life of me the person who tested positive for COVID like five minutes before the Ohio State Penn State game in 2020. But it was Justin Hilliard. So shout out to Justin Hilliard though, man. He came up in some big spots during that 2020 season and in the 2019 season that sometimes as well.

Nathan Baird (05:47.694)

Hmm.

Stephen Means (05:56.373)

I don’t want to, we’re not going to run down guys, but some of these guys, I think it’s just interesting where they ended up starting with Mike Hall, where the Browns have been down this road before with the Ohio State defensive tackle who maybe left earlier than his development said he should have left. But you know, we all have our reasons. Tommy Toggi, I had his reasons and they made sense. Michael Hall has his reasons and they make sense. And

The Browns take a flyer on that guy. I don’t think Tommy Toggi I want his planned out, but they also didn’t take him in the second round. With Michael Hall Jr. though, it seems like the Browns might be able to tap into something because they took him pretty high. So this isn’t a stash away and develop a couple of years pick. They’re expecting this kid to play football for them in 2024.

Nathan Baird (06:41.63)

Yeah, this isn’t a flyer. And, you know, we had seen projections all over the place for Mike going into the draft where I saw him as high as maybe the first 10 picks of the second round. I saw some that were third round picks and not even that high of a third round pick. I think there was a variance here. And some of the scuttle, what you were hearing from, from some of the coverage was that there was a wide variance in the way team saw Mike Holt Jr.

And the Browns and their relationship with Ohio State probably helped him to some regard here. Because it’s pretty obvious that there is a relationship with Ohio State at this point. They’ve just drafted and taken too many guys. I mean, the Togi-I a couple of years ago, Dwan Jones last year, along with getting Ronnie Hickman and Tanner McAlister as undrafted free agents. They’ve just had this I-71 pipeline here for the last few years. Not that they haven’t. They’ve got guys before that too, Denzel Worden.

Whoever else. So, but I think that did probably help him because whatever questions teams had about Mike Hall Jr. I think Cleveland, I think the Brown’s front office trusts Ohio State, at least they appear to. And he really helped himself in the pre-draft process. When he came out early and he’s been very upfront about the fact that there were family reasons for that, he just had a son, he wants to go provide for his family.

Admirable and so do I feel you and

At the same time, we did have questions like, oh, well, what would he have done if he’d come back another year? Could he have really turned himself into a prospect? And to go 52, I think is, that’s nothing, man. That’s like you’re almost in the first, like you’re just outside the first 50 picks of an NFL draft. That’s legitimate. And I think it speaks to the promise that the Browns see in him because at the NFL level,

Nathan Baird (08:44.97)

a little bit more specialized in some ways. I think they’re sometimes okay with that. And obviously if they’re taking him 50 seconds, they want him to be out there a lot. I don’t know that he’s going, I think long-term, they want him to develop into an all around, on the field as much as possible defensive tackle. But he’s only 21 years old. He has a couple, three years before he gets to the age that some of these players who are getting drafted are already at. And that is a lot of maturing that can happen physically.

mentally, emotionally, everything to go from 21 to 23 or 24. And I think there’s a chance, I think they see in him that the flashes that have been here at Ohio State, if you can make those more consistent, then you’re going to be a real weapon at the NFL level, because every level of football, if you can create interior pressure, you’re going to be extremely valuable to a team. And if you look at the Browns and what they were able to bring off the edge with Miles Garrett and the other people that they have, you can see how this

starts to fit together really nicely for them. You know, he and Togai are completely different kinds of players, obviously. Togai being more of a nose, and he was a little bit more of a flyer. Like, also a younger guy that they probably were projecting, but taking him in the fourth round, he had that just Thanos strength and just massive abilities there. It was just a matter of whether he was going to have all the other attributes that you need from a defensive tackle. And like you said, he’s been sort of barely rotational at this point, right? He hasn’t really broken through.

Stephen Means (09:48.121)

Yeah.

Nathan Baird (10:13.982)

With Mike Hall Jr., I think they expect it to be a quicker climb into being an impact player and the ceiling is higher.

Stephen Means (10:24.505)

So one of the things I love, it’s just a fun thing to point out, is when the rankings get it right with a kid, from the day he graduates from high school to him to the NFL draft, it was like that with Garrett Wilson, number 54 pick in the NFL draft, number 53 player in the country coming out of the 2021 recruiting. I just think it’s awesome when it works out like that. I think it worked like that for Garrett, too, where he was the second wide receiver taken off the board. He was the second wide receiver in his recruiting class.

Nathan Baird (10:36.258)

His is almost exact.

Stephen Means (10:54.241)

Mike Hall, this is actually a big deal for Ohio State. He is the second highest defensive lineman taken in the Ryan Day era behind Chase Young, who was number two, some other defensive, so let’s just, cause you sent this out to our Texas and I didn’t even think of it that way till you sent it, 614-350-3315. Here are the top 100 picks on defense since Ryan Day took over the program. Chase Young, number two pick.

Washington Redskins, now the commanders in 2020. Jeff Okuda, number three, in that same draft to the Lions. Damon Arnett to the Raiders at number 19, which we’ve, I mean, we’ve harped on that. It was probably overdraft, but the point is he’s the top 100 pick. They still would have been top 100, 100%. For sure. Davon Hamilton, number 73, to the Jaguars as a defensive tackle, and then Malik Harrison as a linebacker. He went 98 to the Rams. Next year, you get Pete Warner.

Nathan Baird (11:33.43)

He still would have been top 100 even if the Raiders had been saved from themselves.

Stephen Means (11:51.329)

in that 2021 draft as the number 60 pick to the Saints. Baron Browning’s right outside, he’s 105. And then after that, you don’t have any in 2022. And then in 2023, Zach Harrison goes 75th to the Falcons in the 2023 draft. And now you’ve got Michael Hall Jr., who’s 54. So it’s amongst defensive players, period. It’s the three first rounders in that initial draft. And then it’s Michael Hall Jr. And

Nathan Baird (11:55.19)

60.

Stephen Means (12:20.117)

It comes at a time when one kudos to Michael Hall Jr. Cause to your point, I think he, he maximized his draft process.

with what he was able to do in the senior bowl. Now they opened that up to underclassmen as well. The way he built, he wasn’t able to do stuff at the combine, but clearly what he was doing in meetings mattered. And then what he was able to show at his pro day mattered as well. It makes him the 54th pick in the NFL draft, which is, I mean, that’s prime real estate. And it’s coming at a time, Nathan, where as we get into the projection of later, especially next year on this pod.

you get a fine, you got another top 60 pick and then you might have a couple along the way. So it feels like the drought in terms of NFL draft talent on the defensive side of the ball might, the drought that we’ve seen on that side in terms of the abundance in comparison to the offensive side, it might start to equal itself out a little bit.

Nathan Baird (13:11.626)

Yeah, I mean, it’s gonna be an avalanche next year. And then maybe under other circumstances, my call would be part of that avalanche. Maybe if he hadn’t just had a son, he would have stuck around like everyone else did. Although again, to go 52, I think he probably, I don’t know if he could have done a whole lot better than that. Depending on, he would have had to come back and do things at a consistency level he had definitely not done yet at Ohio State. But 52 is not bad.

Nathan Baird (13:39.222)

But yeah, next year it’s gonna be a flood. Like next year it’s gonna be at all levels of that defense. Maybe not linebacker actually. Maybe linebacker will be the one exception. We don’t know yet what things hold for Cody Simon as far as his NFL draft ceiling. And it’s certainly for CJ Hicks and Sonny Stiles. Like whether they’re gonna make that jump after a third year, good. We don’t know yet what that’s gonna look like. But we do know for sure. Denzel Burke, Lathan Ransom.

Probably Davis and Nick Binoza, certainly the defensive ends, Tyleek Williams, Ty Hamilton. It’s gonna be a loaded defensive draft class next year for Ohio State. And at some positions where it’s really been a drought. So a lot, I think, to look forward to. I kind of wrote a thing earlier this week that really the foundation of what they’re gonna do next year is based on this defensive draft class that is poised to come. And it would have come this year too.

Maybe that’s actually the other way to look at it. Like the Mike Hall thing being sort of an outlier and then Tommy Eichenberg, we knew was also most likely going to get drafted. So you had two this year. It really should have been more like seven or eight. If those guys had decided not to come back for another year, right? It, all these guys would have been drafted. Um, I don’t know how many of them would have been the first round, but it would have been, it would have been plentiful. And I think next year’s draft, like we saw what Michigan had today, which was what

players drafted something like that.

Stephen Means (15:09.213)

Yeah, I have those numbers. They had 13 today. So they’re one shy of where OSU and 04 and LSU were in 2020 and two shy of Georgia in the record.

Nathan Baird (15:15.21)

Yep. That’s still a huge class. But that was still including a lot of guys. I think they had like three guys taking the seventh round or something like that. So it’s still guys going late. And I think this next year’s Ohio State’s class is similarly going to probably be spread out through that. You can see the guys who are potentially both by their play and at their position in a place where they could push into that first round or in certainly day two prospects. And there’s going to be other guys like Cody Simon.

Stephen Means (15:22.55)

Mm-hmm.

Nathan Baird (15:43.37)

Like maybe even like Lathan Ransom, like I don’t know what his ceiling is, is a draft prospect. But those guys like more like day three guys. And I think you’re going to see like a three day presence for Ohio State next year, because even the guys who are a little bit more on the role player side of things probably have a spot in the NFL.

Stephen Means (16:04.077)

So, we’ll ask you on the individual players and then we’ll take a break.

So we’ve seen this start to become a theme a little bit in the NFL, where you go get your quarterback and then the next year you go get one of your quarterbacks, former weapons in college. And then immediately incite some chemistry there. You saw it with Joe burrow and Jamar chase. I think Devante Smith and Jaylen Hertz kind of the Eagles did the same thing as the Bengals. Now you have it here. It’s not a wide receiver, but I mean, caged over and probably benefited more than anybody else from year two, CJ Stroud at Ohio state, right? 36 catches, 406 yards and five touchdowns. And obviously he built off.

that this past season even with Kyle McCord 41 catches for 576 and five touchdowns but he’s reuniting with CJ Stroud down there in a situation where he’s also not going to be their number one tight end because I think Dalton Schultz they resigned him as well who kind of had a quality year as well 59 635 and five touchdowns but are you on the radar on the lookout for maybe Cade Stover

is more productive than he would have been had he gone to any of the other 31 teams simply because he’s playing with a quarterback that he’s already got high level chemistry with and that quarterback is in his second year as a starter in the NFL.

Nathan Baird (17:19.766)

Yeah, no question. And I think what they have goes a little bit beyond chemistry. I mean, they were both talked about how they became pretty close during their time at Ohio State and how unique that was. You’ve got a guy coming from the West Coast who has a very CJ Stroud attitude. I don’t know how else to describe it better than that. He’s he is CJ. He’s becoming like a social media phenomenon almost like if you’re if you’re not.

Stephen Means (17:43.754)

Man, listen.

Nathan Baird (17:45.694)

If you’re not just like looking for the times where he goes on a podcast or he has to like, he, he’s loving it. And, um, he, the way that he, um, just engages with people, I think it’s really fun, I think it’s going to make him a really, really popular player in the NFL here in future years and then, you know, Kate is a little bit more like the farm kid from Ohio and on top of that, you know, a gruff exterior and, uh, a guy who I’m sure has, has plenty of fun in his life too.

But there’s a difference in attitude there, a difference in background, a difference in everything, culture, everything. And they made a connection at Ohio State that sort of transcended the field. And I really imagine, they’re not gonna do it to just make CJ Stroud happy, but I’m sure CJ Stroud spoke up highly of what Cade Stover can be at this next level. Now, he was the eighth tight end taken,

If you, if we had like placed bets on this, even as late as when we did that pod earlier this week and said, um, what’s like the over under on how many tight ends taken before Kate Stover, we would not have set that at seven and a half. Like coming out of the pre-draft and coming out of the combine, like back just a couple of months ago, you know, their talk was out there, like, is he one of the top three tight ends in this draft? And I think teams have issues, have questions about him putting a

Stephen Means (19:01.271)

Mm-hmm.

Nathan Baird (19:15.382)

hand in the dirt being an inline blocker. And I think that’s a fair question to ask. But he hears that and it’s definitely put a chip on his shoulder too. And he is still relative to other guys being drafted as tight ends, still kind of in his infancy. You have to remember January 2021, he’s playing linebacker in the Rose Bowl and he had transitioned to tight end earlier that year, but you could tell his heart was still at linebacker.

I think an important note is that in these next two years where he was really coming into his own as a tight end, at least as a receiving tight end, he still is fairly young in his tight end life. And I think that makes him an intriguing prospect. And I think that’s something else CJ Stroud probably told the Texans, not that they wouldn’t have known it themselves, but like, you know, this guy has upside because I don’t think he is anywhere near a finished product.

as far as being the kind of tight end he can be. The blocking stuff, I think is legitimate as much as he hates to hear it. I think there are some legitimate concerns. We start scrutinizing him by an NFL standard as a blocker. But I also know from an attitude standpoint, from a physicality standpoint, like he brings a lot of the intangibles that you want underlying anybody who’s out there trying to block NFL defensive players. And I think that’s gonna...

pay off for him as he keeps trying to progress in that way. But from a receiving standpoint, no doubt. CJ Stroud used him liberally that 2022 season, whether it was underneath stuff, where he kind of took the place of what used to be maybe the running back in the offense at times for dump offs and just stuff underneath of coverage and kind of escape route stuff. And then also

you know, found him in the seam a lot and went vertical with him pretty consistently and found the ways to make him a weapon in the offense. And I think he’ll they already have that connection. Like you said, like as soon as he got picked, I kind of went from like as you look at trajectories, because trajectories are important. Like there’s guys who get drafted by the wrong team and it’s the wrong situation and their career just kind of never takes off the way it could have if they’d gotten into a better situation.

Nathan Baird (21:42.838)

or just the wrong dominoes fall. And if Cade Stover had gotten drafted by a lot of other teams, I would have thought that there’s gonna be a process before he can be a starter and maybe be a big impact player. But I think that is definitely accelerated with the Texans just because he already is. He already is one of CJ Stroud’s favorite receivers before he ever gets an apartment in Houston.

Stephen Means (21:59.641)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (22:09.709)

He just tried lining up for a big year here, both just as a face in the NFL, a young face in the NFL, as you said, with the amount of media he’s been doing here to also what he’s doing on the football field. OK, those are the guys who got drafted today, Tommy Bykenberg as well, who I.

Personality wise, I don’t think I would have said Vegas was the perfect fit for him, but of the other guys who were getting drafted, I think it’s not really a shocker that he was the one who got drafted. We’re gonna take a quick break here, and then I’m gonna throw some numbers at Nathan that I’ve already thrown at the texture 614-350-3315. Just projecting things forward, because small draft class, but there’s a reason for the small draft class and what it could be setting up in 2025 here on Buckeye Talk.

Stephen Means (22:53.345)

So I ran some numbers. I’m Stephen Means, that’s Nathan Bayer. And get the text 614-350-3315. We’re wrapping up the 2024 NFL draft for Ohio State. Had four players of the nine guys hoping to get drafted. Get drafted to teams, one first round draft pick, one second round draft pick, a fourth rounder, and a fifth rounder. Ohio State, four guys. So here’s the numbers that I just crunched immediately, just off of the teams who are relevant in this conversation for us. Nathan.

Georgia obviously still holds the record in 2022 coming off that 21 national championship team. They jumped over Ohio State’s 2004 and LSU’s 2020 draft classes which were both 14. Michigan, one shy of that, with 13. Texas had 12. Alabama, Nick Saban’s last draft class, 10 guys, and then Oregon and Georgia both with eight. So the new Oregon with the second highest of the new

The reason I pointed those guys out as we look forward here is do we think Ohio state can break the 15 person record or can they at least match what they did in 2004 or match what Michigan did this year with 13 and here are the name I mapped it out. There’s 19 guys, non-quarterbacks right now, because we don’t know who the starting quarterback is and either way it makes it 20, but here are the 19 guys who are.

who are draft eligible and have a realistic chance of getting drafted, but just where things are right now, how we view them and how their careers have gone based off of some of its recruiting rankings, some of it they’ve already done. G Scott, Seth McLaughlin, Josh Friar, Ty Hamilton, Cody Simon, Lathan Ransom. Those are the guys who are fifth year players or older. Fourth year guys.

Trevion Henderson, Ameke Abouka, Joshua Simmons, Donovan Jackson, Jack Sawyer, JT Twain Malowow, Tyleek Williams, Jordan Hancock, Denzel Burke. So as you mentioned, that’s a lot of defensive guys. Third year, draft eligible for the first time. I threw a couple of flyers with a couple for certains. Quinchon Judkins, Sonny Styles, Davidson Ibn Nosen, and then I just threw CJ in there just in case like the top 10 recruit in the country turns himself into like, you know, he’s awesome this year and is a guy who can go from a third.

Stephen Means (25:05.745)

only playing in his third year to get in getting in going to the NFL draft because we’ve seen that before at Ohio State. So in total, that is six guys who are fifth years or older, nine guys who are in their fourth year and in four third year guys who are eligible for the first time, plus either Will Howard or Devin Brown.

would make it 20 because Devon Brown getting the job, third year eligible for the first time guy who under the same guys as Matt Jones, Dewaye Haskins, maybe they show something that makes them a NFL draft pick next year and they jump at it. Or with Will Howard, it’s just simply because this is their last year of college football and you’re not coming back anyway. So that’s 20 guys to potentially match Michigan’s 13, match Ohio State and LSU’s 14 or Michigan’s 15. Do you like those odds of matching any of those numbers in 2025?

with where things stand right now.

Nathan Baird (25:58.222)

I like more than 13.

It’s it’s tough like you saw how many because Michigan had I don’t remember how many guys they had invited to the combine this year Maybe like 16 something like that It was a bunch and not all those guys got drafted just as you know Not everybody Ohio State brought to the combine got drafted. It’s it’s tough to 18 guys so right 13 out of 18 get drafted and You know, we’re also saying this on Saturday night on the 27th the

Stephen Means (26:19.913)

18 guys.

Nathan Baird (26:32.334)

transfer portals open until the 30th. So we don’t know who else Ohio State might add between now and then that could possibly go on that list. So I would definitely take the over of 13. Once you start getting up to numbers like 15, 16, that’s a really, really massive haul. And it doesn’t leave you in a room. Like, you know, Steel Chambers is a good example, like a guy who was a three year starter and at least parts of three seasons. And...

Athletically, you know, he’s got the running back background. I think he profiles well athletically at the next level. And some of the things I said about Cade Stover applied to him too. It was, you know, he’s still got some growth in his game, I think, to become a linebacker at the NFL level at the same time, they need him to be a linebacker in the NFL right now, and he takes an undrafted pre-agent deal. Actually, we just, just got that, the details on that. His agency says he’s signing with the Detroit Lions.

Nathan Baird (27:30.594)

So you know what I mean? There’s going to be other guys on the roster that are a little bit like that. When you look at maybe some of the offensive linemen, you look at someone like Cody Simon, you look at someone like Ty Hamilton, there’s no guarantee that those guys will be draft picks. But, I think Will Howard’s going to be a draft pick probably, regardless. But is he a middle round pick? Is he a late round pick?

Like there’s a lot of variance in some of these guys and we’re already seeing the kind of quarterbacks who were going to like the sixth or seventh round. Some of them were pretty accomplished in their college careers going into the latter rounds of this draft. So there’s going to be some things that depend on how deep the draft is for some of these positions next year. But I definitely think, I think they can beat 13. I think there’s enough certainty with enough guys, especially on this defense, that you can get to 13.

pretty easily. I mean, your entire starting four on the defensive line should go, should get drafted. Both your starting cornerbacks should get drafted. Lathan Ransom should get drafted. So that’s seven.

at least one of the quarterbacks should get drafted. You think at least Will Howard, I would say eight. Both running backs is 10. Mecha Buka is 11. And then, you know, offensive line, Donovan Jackson is probably a draft pick. So right there, that’s 12. So you only need a couple of these other guys to pan out to push you. Oh, and Seth McLaughlin. So there you go. I think you’ve already tied it on like almost sure things. And as you pointed out

Stephen Means (28:51.71)

Thank you.

Stephen Means (29:00.229)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nathan Baird (29:07.702)

That doesn’t include guys who are going to maybe surge this year and make themselves better prospects than they were before. So yeah, I think 13 is, I think they’re going to overtake 13. I think when you start pushing towards 16, 15, you really need some big seasons from Cody Simon, G. Scott, Will Casmeric, I suppose. I think he’ll be eligible at that point. I don’t know if he’s ready to leave yet.

you know, the Josh Friars and Josh Simmons of the world. Like this is one of them have like a real breakthrough. So you would need some, some like really advanced seasons from a couple of these guys who right now you would think are probably on the outside looking in as far as like getting drafted, but they’re all intriguing in their own way too. Especially someone like G Scott, like, you know maybe he really comes alive this year. He’s got the athletic background to do more than he’s done to this point. So is it someone like that surge?

Like that’s, it’s one of the many things that makes us a really intriguing team for this fall because while you have certainty at so many places, there’s also upside at so many places where you probably have not seen the best football that some guys are going, who are going to be in important positions have played yet.

Stephen Means (30:23.421)

Yeah, I think they get the 13 pretty easily. And I say easily, lightly, because then we’ll be having this conversation next year. And it’s like, oh, they only got 10. But I think they can get the 13 easily. Getting those extra three to break the record. They might need someone who I didn’t list to show some things where it’s like, oh, OK, well, he’s in this conversation. And they’re also going to need my calls. Guys who go to the senior bowl and use the draft process.

to bump themselves up because what can’t happen, I think Michigan kind of ran out of some steam because maybe if you thought after day two, okay, they can flirt with it, right? Because they had JJ McCarthy go on day one and then day two was kind of Michigan day. They had two guys in the second round and then they had four guys going to third round and they were like back to back to back in those situations.

And then in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds, you get two total between those three rounds. In the sixth round, you get none. So it’s one each, fourth and the fifth, none in the sixth. And then you pick back up in the seventh to get you four more, which gets you over the top. But that fourth through sixth round, kind of losing some steam.

is to your point, Nathan, where you can eat a really good draft record breaking. What’s the fix for the earlier you don’t necessarily do in that position. I think they who are thinking about or who definitely solidify the process to do it as interesting to monitor because that’s what you’re talking about. It hasn’t said a lot of guys going to a lot of guys coming out guys who were happening. I was taking it so after this, you know.

I’m not gonna call it just the version and you add in the fact that this is one more thing. Michigan doesn’t indicate because even that Ohio State year in 2020 in 2016, they only had 12. So this is another thing that Ohio State can add to Michigan on the field.

Nathan Baird (33:34.854)

Maybe, but it’s gonna be pretty hollow if they don’t beat them. Like, no one’s gonna care. Like, it’s, you’ve gotta, they’ve gotta beat them. And that’s what this is really more about. And it’s, it’s not even gonna be, it, you can already, you brace yourself if you’re an Ohio State fan, probably, for like, oh, the year after we sent 13 guys to the NFL and you only sent four, because all you guys came back, the next year you beat us, is that what happened? Like, you can already hear them.

Stephen Means (33:41.589)

And how many Ohio State could potentially have in the 2025 as we continue to look forward and I’ve got for next week as well. Plus, this portal will officially close on the 30th. So we’ll look back on Ohio State’s, I guess, noise between the next couple of days that could and that’s Dallin Hayden, the former running back who’s had the Colorado and then they lost said Hawkins.

Nathan Baird (34:00.17)

saying that probably to some extent, and there’s some truth to it. So, but that’s, that’s just how these things roll. It’s, it’s not everything lines up perfectly. And it’s more about what this glut of talent means for helping them win that game and not just that game, but like all of the games, that’s what we’re thinking about right now, like does Ohio State win every game this year? And is it, is it this loaded of a roster? And.

Stephen Means (34:02.265)

the safety who was headed home to CF to play. So it’s only two guys. So text 614-503-315. As the rest of the guys who were not drafted getting signed as undrafted free agents, we’ll be texting off that. If there’s portal news, we’ll be texting off that as well. Plus the other things, recruiting stuff and everything else going on. Once again, Ohio State’s 2024.

NFL draft for guys drafted Marvin Harrison, Jr. In the first round to the Cardinal Michael Hall, Jr. In the second round to the Browns, Kate Stover in the fourth round to the Texans. CJ Stroud, Tommy Eichenberg, 148th. For Nathan, I’m Stephen Means. And that was Puck Eye Talk.

Nathan Baird (34:30.202)

Not every team that has done this with like 15, 16 draft picks has won a championship, but most of them have, right? Like those Alabama teams, the LSU team. I can’t remember if Georgia’s Hall was, if that Georgia year was after their first championship or if it was one of the previous years because they were a team that had been loaded a lot and at least as far as NFL talent and just not really ever put it together until the last few years.

But you know what I’m saying, like it’s not a guarantee because sometimes NFL draft scrutiny is different than whether you line up and beat the guy across from you. So that’s still the standard for this team. The draft stuff is fun to keep track of and fun to project. And I assure Ohio State would love to say that after its national championship, after it beat Michigan and won the national championship.

It then also had more draft picks. Yes, Ohio State fans would love to say that, but they’re not gonna probably say it at all without those first two things, at least the first of those two things.