Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Tavien St. Clair has everyone's attention now. Former OSU receiving great Chris Carter just put St. Clair on many radars after comparing him to the greatest dual-threat quarterback in NFL history, Kansas City Chiefs icon Pat Mahomes.
Carter called St. Clair a "great-looking kid" who "looks like a version of Patrick Mahomes" during an appearance on his "Fully Loaded" podcast.
"Really good athlete. Can be a dual threat; is more of a pocket passer. Had a great spring. Good-looking prospect," Carter said.
St. Clair has great size and vision at six-foot-four and boasts impressive measurables. There's no doubting Carter's general assessment. The "like a version of" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that Mahomes comp.
You always want to avoid comparisons to the absolute best players. Especially when you're comparing collegiate performance to the pros. College career trajectories are always at risk of going in different directions than straight up.
Carter definitely got a little overexcited, but the sentiment is understandable. The Buckeyes may be in better hands with their next QB than they've been in for quite some time. Probably since C.J. Stroud, at least.
And that's not to downplay what Julian Sayin accomplished during the 2025 season. Sayin led Ohio State to an undefeated regular season and only helped further the hype Jeremiah Smith has garnered out wide as one of the sport's modern receiving greats.
Tavien St. Clair reaching his potential hinges on Cortez Hankton
Sayin has Smith, Brandon Inniss, and a debuting Chris Henry Jr. in 2026. After this season, only the latter will return. To say there's a need for more receiving talent to restock the cupboards is a major understatement.
It's time for Cortez Hankton to step up to the plate and prove that the program will be just fine without Brian Hartline. Both the 2027 and 2028 cycles badly need more bodies, with only two blue-chip receivers -- Big Walnut 5-star Jamier Brown next year and Jett Harrison, the younger brother of Marvin Harrison Jr. and son of Marvin Harrison, in 2028 -- in the cards thus far.
St. Clair's ceiling depends on Hankton coming close to being in Hartline's recruiting ballpark. Hartline found several NFL WR1s over the course of seven cycles. Hankton doesn't even need to find that much talent. It'd definitely help if Ryan Day and his offensive assistants continue to find elite trench talent to give St. Clair the time in the pocket that his predecessors had to get on NFL radars.
If everything breaks right, St. Clair could be one of the great QBs to come out of Columbus. He has the tools, and now he has the hype. As long as there isn't a drop-off at the WR position, and trench recruits don't start snubbing their noses at the Scarlet and Gray, the Buckeyes should give him the platform to prove his supporters right.
Who knows? Maybe Carter will look like a soothsayer, and St. Clair will be Mahomes incarnate. Carter knows more than most about what makes a great QB at OSU.
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