Ohio State football: Could the Buckeyes have 4 first-round draft picks in 2022?

The 2021 Draft was one of the few times the Ohio State football team didn’t have multiple first-round picks. Don’t expect 2022 to be like that.

Each year no sooner does one NFL Draft end, talk of another begins. We’re about 357 days from Round 1 of the 2022 version of the league’s annual spring circus and we are already seeing a couple of mock drafts released.

I usually don’t bother much with them, but seeing four Ohio State football players listed in the first round tends to get my attention. Two of the Buckeyes mentioned are not a surprise; the other two made me raise an eyebrow.

Every mock draft for next year has Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson listed in the first round. Not surprising since Olave was one of the highest-rated receivers in this year’s draft until he decided to remain in Columbus, and Wilson is just a phenom. Most see both of them being selected somewhere between picks ten and twenty.

The two surprises are cornerback Sevyn Banks and defensive end Zach Harrison. Banks is viewed as OSU’s next great at his position. The feeling on Harrison is he can become a first-round pick if he has a very productive year. They love his size (6’6”, 268 pounds) and speed. The majority of mock drafts see each of them going later in the round, but Todd McShay of ESPN has Banks being selected 12th.

One other surprise I ran across while perusing various draft prognostications for next year is Bleacher Report predicting defensive tackle Haskell Garrett will be taken by Tampa at the very end of the first round. The feeling is the Bucs are in need of help along with the interior of their defensive line and Garrett is a perfect fit.

Who are a few other Buckeyes who I could see getting first-round grades for the 2022 Draft? Tight end Jeremy Ruckert is the first who comes to mind. He fits that Rob Gronkowski/Travis Kelce mold of a big, athletic guy who can get down the field and creates matchup nightmares for defenses.

Right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere has steadily improved since he first joined the program. If he maintains the same pace raising his game this season, I could see him being thought of as a first-rounder.

Because of the way he tortured Bengals’ 2021 second-round pick, Jackson Carmen of Clemson in the Sugar Bowl, I could see defensive end Tyreke Smith moving into the first round with a big season. At 6’3” he isn’t quite the ideal height for an NFL defensive end, but he’s hardly undersized.

This is all speculation and so many things will change by next year’s Draft, but it does tell you a lot of people feel the Ohio State football program has some very high-end talent.