Ohio State football: Best defensive end lineup ever?

Now that J.T. Tuimoloau has committed to the Ohio State football program, is this the best lineup of defensive ends that the Buckeyes have ever had?

The Ohio State football team will have both J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer as freshmen this season. Both are top defensive ends in this year’s recruiting class and are five-star prospects. Both will get significant playing time this season and should be borderline dominant.

Those aren’t the only two good defensive ends the Buckeyes have for this year’s team. They also have former five-star recruit Zach Harrison back for his junior year. Harrison is looking for a breakout season so he can enter the NFL Draft next year as a first-round pick.

Tyreke Smith will likely be the other starting defensive end opposite of Harrison. Smith has shown flashes of brilliance at that spot as well. Add in Javontae Jean-Baptiste and this defensive end unit is completely loaded from top to bottom. None of those players are bad.

Sawyer and Tuimoloau are likely to get a lot of snaps this season as freshmen. Harrison will also stay on the field the majority of the defensive snaps. They are all quality defensive ends that can make plays in the backfield and sack the quarterback. Smith will likely get the other snaps left over.

Having a room this stacked creates some problems. How do these snaps get allotted? Who gets to play the most in this group? When will this be determined? When you have so many good players at one position, it makes it tough to figure these things out.

With that being said, this is an excellent problem to have. I’d much rather have an issue trying to find snaps for good players to get on the field than not having enough good players at a particular position on the field. Ryan Day gets paid the big bucks to figure this stuff out. He’ll certainly earn his salary this season.

I’m very excited to see all of these players suit up and play this season. They are all going to play very well. I think this is the best lineup of defensive ends Ohio State has had in program history.