The Ohio State football team was well represented in this year’s NFL Draft and the Big Ten Conference as a whole fared well.
10 Ohio State football players were chosen in this year’s NFL draft tying for the second most picks by any team behind the LSU Tigers. The other team with 10 players chosen, the Michigan Wolverines.
48 players in the Big Ten Conference were draft picks and that was second to the SEC which had 63. The Pac 12 had 32, the ACC 27 and the Big 12 only had 21.
Here are the total number of draft picks of each Big Ten team per CBS Sports.com.
- Ohio State 10
- Michigan 10
- Minnesota 5
- Iowa 5
- Penn State 5
- Wisconsin 4
- Maryland 2
- Michigan State 2
- Nebraska 2
- Purdue 2
- Indiana 1
Rutgers, Northwestern and Illinois didn’t have any players drafted.
Michigan had a great draft matching Ohio State with 10 players. But a look at where players were drafted show the difference in the two programs.
One Wolverine was drafted in the first round, one in the second and the rest on Day 3. Three Buckeyes were chosen in the first round and four more in Day 2. The star power is the difference.
Not surprisingly Minnesota, Iowa, Penn State and Wisconsin had nice draft classes. Those teams have talent on the roster and the players are well coached.
With the seasons Michigan State, Nebraska and Purdue had it’s not a shock each of those teams only had two players chosen in the draft. Indiana is on the upswing though and may have more than one player picked in drafts going forward.
Two teams with no draft picks isn’t a bit surprising.
Although New Jersey is loaded with talented high school football players they often choose to play for a powerhouse school rather than Rutgers. As for the Northwestern, most players Pat Fitzgerald can bring in are two or three star recruits.
He is one of the best coaches in the country but has few players with the skill set to play in the NFL.
I think things may change for Illinois if Lovie Smith’s team has another nice season. Talented recruits may think playing for a guy who had success as an NFL head coach may be a good path to playing on Sundays.
Overall, it was a nice NFL Draft for the Big Ten. And the number of players chosen by each team gives a good indication of why some were successful during the 2019 season and others weren’t.