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Vo. 1, No. 25
This week in Ohio State football, we’re getting ready for the NFL Scouting Combine!
I will be in Indianapolis next week to get a chance to talk to a bunch of Buckeyes one more time, see all of the top prospects in person and even listen in on what NFL coaches and executives including Zac Taylor and Duke Tobin of the Bengals have to say about their teams right before free agency is set to begin.
I’ll be flooding my YouTube page with those interviews, and I’m sure some of them will make it to my professional Facebook page, too, so be sure to check those out if you haven’t already.
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When it all clicks.
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Here are Ohio State’s combine invitees (The Athletic Big Board Ranking/Pro Football Focus ranking):
LB Arvell Reese (1/3)
S Caleb Downs (4/5)
LB Sonny Styles (5/8)
WR Carnell Tate (10/7)
DT Kayden McDonald (26/21)
TE Max Klare (54/71)
CB Davison Igbinosun (50/123)
DE Caden Curry (na/169)
RB CJ Donaldson (na/320)
DB Lorenzo Styles Jr. (na/231)
TE Will Kacmarek (na/379)
Of this group, it will be interesting to see where Donaldson weighs in and how fast he runs. He came to OSU as a power back, allegedly, but he trimmed down and wasn’t really great in that role for the Buckeyes.
More thoughts:
How Klare tests figures to be pretty important because he is not considered a great blocker so teams probably want to see as much speed and athleticism as possible.
Kacmarek could be a steal for some team as a blocking tight end. If he tests really well, that could move him up on some boards, too.
Downs may or may not put up eye-popping numbers, but I suppose it couldn’t hurt for him to test well. There’s already a lot of discussion about him being a great prospect but not at a premium position, which is ridiculous for two reasons.
A) Teams just need good football players, and he’s great.
B) Safety should be considered a premium position.
However to the latter point, I suppose there are more body types that can excel at safety than at positions like cornerback and defensive end so there might be less scarcity, but Downs himself is a rare, rare prospect.
Lorenzo Styles Jr. might be one who surprises with the way he tests. He had a couple of high-profile failures during the season, but overall he was an important and effective part of the defense and they lost a lot of versatility when he got hurt. Plus sometimes guys sort of blend in physically when they get to Ohio State and we forget they were premium prospects in high school.
His brother might draw a crowd just of people who want to see what a linebacker create in a lab looks like. He’ll also interview off the charts. He needed some time to grow into his body and the position of linebacker at Ohio State, but he looks like a plug-and-play future captain in the NFL.
Reese figure to test off the charts, too, but there will be questions about his drop in productivity in the latter half of the season. He is a man of few words, but it will be interesting to see what he says about that.
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Will he be there? Will they take him if he is?
I would say “I doubt it” and yes…
NFL Combine/Draft coverage plans
I have been going to the combine since 2018 (I think), and it is always a great opportunity to get some answers about what the Buckeyes were thinking last season, how they see the guys coming after them and to mingle with reporters from all over the country.
Over the years, I’ve developed a healthy skepticism of the draft rankings produced by media, especially as the NFL Draft Media Complex has gotten bigger and bigger.
Anybody with an internet connection can publish rankings and spew opinions now, and it’s impossible to tell who knows what they are talking about and who does not.
Also even if someone is capable of breaking down the film properly, their viewing a prospect the same way an actual NFL scout does is never guaranteed — and only one of those opinions really matters.
Beyond that, NFL teams have access to a lot of background information we do not, and that often contributes to surprising drops on draft day.
Lastly, we’ve reached a point now where any information that comes from many of the people who cover the league closely is compromised because NFL teams have figured out how to selectively leak stuff (or just lie) in order to manipulate the process.
So that’s a long-winded way of saying I used to be a draft junkie, but now I take all the pre-draft stuff with a grain of salt.
Nonetheless, I am interested in following it a little more closely this year (since I get to choose what I cover now that I’m my own boss for the most part) just to see how things evolve. Maybe I’ll even have time to go back and compare some ratings and mock drafts with how things actually turn out.
I’m not going to write about the draft every week, but I will try to snag the best nuggets and information I think might actually interest you, the reader. I want to cut through the noise so you don’t have to, in part by sharing stuff from the draftniks I do like and respect.
For instance, Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network (I like him because he was an actual scout before getting into the media) projects Tate, Reese and Downs to go in the top 10 with Sonny Styles being taken 15th.
I also like Lance Zierlein’s player profiles at NFL.com, so you can look for more on those in the future.
If you have thoughts on my point of view or requests for coverage, please let me know in the comments or via email.
Until we meet again, have a great weekend!
BONUS COVERAGE!
Aside from my work here, I’m also a writer for PressProsMagazine.com.
This week that took me to Springfield to see a pair of Miami Valley League teams advance in the Division III girls basketball tournament.
I also covered the Ohio State men’s basketball team’s upset of Wisconsin on Tuesday night for The Associated Press.
On top of that, I’m a trending news writer for MensJournal.com.
That can encompass any topic that might interest dudes, as you might expect.
This week that meant diving into the puzzling decision by the Chicago Bears to seek a move to Northern Indiana, where there actually was an original NFL team (but that is beside the point).
Also the Seattle Seahawks dipped into college to hire away a current head coach to be one of their new assistants, and starting today you can play with an Ohio State player or two in NBA 2k26.
Lastly, The Old Farmer’s Almanac has good news for much of the country hoping for a warm spring, but there are some exceptions.
