The Ohio State Buckeyes and TTUN produced 11 and six NFL draft prospects in 2026, and there will most certainly be plenty more in 2027. Jeremiah Smith, Julian Sayin, Austin Siereveld, Kenyatta Jackson Jr., and Jermaine Matthews Jr., among others, will come from Columbus. John Henry Daley, Jordan Marshall, and Andrew Sprague, among others, are most certainly league-bound from Ann Arbor.
"The Game" is a good matchup to source talent. Las Vegas Raiders GM John Spytek admitted as much during an episode of the Up & Adams podcast. Spytek, a former Wolverine himself, gassed up Ohio State and his alma mater, though it felt like he was making it clear he doesn't have a Maize and Blue bias.
“I’ve got to get rid of my biases. I tell people all the time, I’ll take a bunch of Ohio State guys because they can play football. That’s like one-one millionth of the factor that we put it in. You get a little bump if you’re a Michigan man, but not too much. We’re not running you up the draft board," Spytek said.
“We tried [to take Michigan players]. You know, the draft doesn’t quite go like you want it to go.”
Ohio State football pipeline to the NFL is very healthy
Name a position, and there's a recent Buckeye that's doing well in the NFL at it. Ohio State alums are earning plenty of money in the pros, too. Overall, the pipeline is extremely healthy. The NFL connections of current coordinators Arthur Smith and Matt Patricia will help here moving forward.
As the NIL/rev-share era fully settled in, few programs around the country adapted like the Buckeyes. Ohio State was the first program to hit $20 million in spending, winning the title the year it doled that out. The Buckeyes weren't the first to $40 million during this cycle, but the Indiana Hoosiers proved you don't need to be the biggest spender to win it all.
Ohio State figures to maintain that pipeline for as long as College Football exists. Eventually, the Buckeyes will own the all-time NFL draft pick record for most selected.
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