Ohio State Pro Day: Big Opportunity for Dontre Wilson and Corey Smith

Pro Day at Ohio State.

Tomorrow is an important day for a few Buckeyes as NFL scouts are coming to town to watch them perform. But with two players, Dontre Wilson and Corey Smith, their performance at the Ohio State Pro Day will be of utmost importance.

The two wide receivers weren’t invited to the NFL Combine so this will be their only chance to impress the scouts before draft day. As of now, I doubt either of the two would even be a late round pick. That could change with a very strong performance tomorrow.

Each of the two players were key players for the Buckeyes when they were healthy, and both were contributors to the Ohio State national title run in 2014. But injuries have been an issue for each of them. Let’s look at each player’s situation starting with Wilson.

Dontre Wilson: He was an integral player for Ohio State in 2014, but suffered his first injury late that season. The injury situation became a problem after that.

Then his problems fielding punts last season became an issue as well. That certainly hurt Wilson because his best chance of being drafted was as a wide receiver / return man.

Corey Smith: He came to Ohio State in the 2013 recruiting class after two years of playing ball at two different small colleges. After redshirting that season, he saw significant playing time in 2014. He was scheduled to start the following year but an injury caused him to miss the season.

Smith has two attributes scouts love. He is a good route runner and has good hands. The injury situation is the main issue for him.

It will be extremely important for each of these two players to turn in outstanding performances. If they do, some team may take a chance on them with a late round pick. There is nothing like running a 4.4 in the 40 to slide questions a scout has about a player a little further back in their mind.

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Two other players can help themselves with strong performances as well, Pat Elflein to move up in the draft and Noah Brown to move in.

Noah Brown may need a strong performance to be chosen in the draft, because things seem to be going south for the Ohio State wide receiver. Many people, including scouts, scratched their head when he declared for the draft and then he decided not to run the 40 at the Combine. There isn’t any positive buzz around Brown and I think he has to make a really good impression on the scouts tomorrow.

If Pat Elflein can improve on his 22 reps in the bench press at the Combine, he could be a solid second round pick.

I think the other Buckeyes are pretty well set with their draft status. I doubt that Marshon Lattimore, Gareon Conley, Curtis Samuel and Raekwon McMillan have much more to prove after their performances at the NFL Combine.

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Malik Hooker is set as a top 10 pick even though he can’t work out, and who knows if a team will use a draft pick on punter Cameron Johnston.

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