Ohio State Football: Todd McShay claims JSN sitting out to protect draft stock

It was a rough final season for Jaxon Smith Njigba. The Ohio State football team’s best overall player hardly played this season due to a hamstring injury that he suffered against Notre Dame in the opener. He never ended up playing a full game for the Buckeyes in 2022.

Smith-Njigba was once projected as the number one receiver off the board in the 2023 NFL Draft. Because of the injury, his stock has slipped. He may be lucky to be a first-round pick now because scouts have hardly seen him play since last year’s Rose Bowl.

ESPN’s Todd McShay does an excellent job covering the draft every year. I like his analysis and his reporting of what scouts are saying about a particular prospect. McShay was on ESPN yesterday to talk about Smith-Njigba’s decision and had some interesting things to say.

Todd McShay claims scouts think Jaxon Smith-Njigba isn’t really hurt and is sitting out the College Football Playoff to protect his draft stock.

McShay claims that scouts doubt JSN is actually still hurt from his hamstring injury and is just trying to further protect his stock, despite Smith-Njigba claiming that doctors told him he wasn’t medically able to play in the Playoff.

As you can see from the clip shown by my buddy and former roommate, McShay says this is the information he’s getting from the scouts. If this is indeed true, that’s a terrible look for Smith-Njigba, as well as the Ohio State football program as a whole.

What kind of culture do you have that allows players to give up on you in the middle of a championship run? What kind of player are you if you quit on your teammates? Those are questions that will have to be answered if this is indeed true.

Of course, with things like this you have to look at it from all angles. Scouts could be making this up in hopes that it hurts JSN’s stock and he slides to a position where their team can draft him. There are two sides to every coin and every angle needs to be examined.

On the surface though, this is not a good look for anyone involved.