Todd McShay has three Ohio State Football players in top 50

Even though the 2022 college football season hasn’t even started yet, there are still no days off for those who are looking at next year’s NFL Draft. That is certainly true for ESPN’s Todd McShay. He just released his top 50 prospects for the 2023 NFL Draft and he has some Ohio State football players on it.

The highest of those Ohio State football players on his list is C.J. Stroud. He has Stroud sitting at 4th overall right now, only behind Will Anderson from Bama, Jalen Carter from Georgia, and Bryce Young from Bama. I find it interesting that he has Young ranked higher than Stroud, though I can’t necessarily argue it right now.

The next Buckeye on the list is Jaxon Smith-Njigba. JSN sits at 11, which is a lot lower than I thought he’d be. In fact, he’s the second wide receiver on McShay’s list. He has Jordan Addison at 7, who just transferred from Pitt to USC. I think JSN will move higher after this season though.

Finally, he has Paris Johnson Jr. listed at 14. As bad as Ohio State’s offensive line was at times last year, Johnson Jr. was the best guy on that line. McShay actually has him as the highest-rated offensive lineman in the draft at the moment. That’s some high praise for someone who hasn’t taken a snap with the first team offense as a tackle yet.

Those are the only Buckeyes that he has listed in the top 50 prospects right now. I’m not surprised that’s all he has right now. No defensive players deserve to be rated that high right now, that’s for sure. It’s also important to keep in mind that this is a list of prospects on his board, not where he thinks they’ll get drafted.

What do you think of the list? Do you think he has enough Buckeyes on it? Or do you think others deserve to be on it too?