By Micheal Germanese
Regarding the wide receiver position, Ohio State should be the only landing spot for a player looking to develop for the NFL. Ohio State has become a wide receiver factory, producing first-round draft picks like there coming off an assembly line. From players like Chris Olave and Jaxson Smith-Njigba to Jeremiah Smith—who will be a top-5 pick when the time comes—Ohio State’s ability to bring in and develop high school-wide receiver talent and turn them into first-round draft picks is unmatched.
What’s impressive is they continue to bring in the talent despite having a stacked wide receiver room, making playing time limited for incoming freshmen. No better example is the 2024 class, the headliner was Smith as the No. 1 player and wide receiver in the country. But that class also had Mylan Graham in it. Graham ranked 39th nationally and was the ninth-best wide receiver out of high school. Graham could have found playing time somewhere but chose Ohio State because of what they do with their wide receivers.
Bringing in top wide receiver talent each year is only one piece of the puzzle for continued success at the position. The other piece is putting talent around them who can throw them the ball. You can bring in top wide receivers each year but if you don’t have a quarterback to throw them the ball, it’s all for nothing.
In college football, recruiting is about targeting, acquiring and retaining talent. And when it comes to the wide receiver position, no one has done it better than the Buckeyes since 2020.
Ohio State is WRU pic.twitter.com/fuPteypRxw
— CleBuckeye (@CleBuckeye23) April 25, 2025
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Target and Acquire Talent
Since 2020 Ohio State has had 13 wide receivers come to Columbus ranked inside the top 100 players according to the On3 rankings. Of the 13, Quincy Porter (2025), Smith (2024), Emeka Egbuka (2021), Julian Fleming and Smith-Njigba (2020) were five-star prospects. Smith was the highest-ranked wide receiver prospect of the 13 and could be the best wide receiver to come out of Ohio State ever.
The 13 top 100 wide receivers Ohio State has brought in are the most in the country from 2020-2025. The only school that comes close to matching Ohio State is Alabama, which has brought in 10. Clemson, Oregon, Texas, LSU and Georgia all sit at six. Ohio State’s ability to bring double the amount of talent than most top schools is a testament to how good they have been in recruiting.
Retaining Talent
The transfer portal has let players move freely across the college football landscape. The portal, having limited-to-no guidelines and no ability to enforce those guidelines, has made it hard for teams to retain players. Each year, of the top 100 players that enter the portal, approximately 20 percent are wide receivers.
Playing time, wanting to be WR-X and lucrative NIL deals have focused coaches to spend just as much time recruiting their players as they do the high school and other portal players. And when it comes to retaining their players, no one has done it better than the Buckeyes. Ohio State has only seen four of its 13 top 100 wide receivers enter the portal. Alabama, the only team close to bringing in the same talent at wide receiver, have seen eight of their 10 enter the portal.
Ohio State star Jeremiah Smith reportedly received a MASSIVE offer to enter the transfer portal after capping off his freshman year with a national title win 🤯
(via @PeteNakos_) pic.twitter.com/ZOPTWk1hd3
— OutOfSightSports🚀™️ (@OOSSports) January 24, 2025
Ohio State’s top wide receiver, Smith, was rumored to have received large NIL offers to enter the portal, but the money wasn’t enough to get him to leave. Carnell Tate and Bradon Innis could have entered the portal to become WR-X at another school, but chose to stay. Graham, sitting fourth on the depth chart and having to compete with incoming 2025 freshman Porter for playing time, could have left as well, but like Tate and Innis, stayed. Ohio State doesn’t lose top WR talent when they want them to stay.
QB Play
A team can have 20 five-star wide receivers, but if no one can throw them the ball, what good are they? Ohio State doesn’t get the credit it should for developing and recruiting the quarterback back position. Whether it was Dwayne Haskins or CJ Stroud that came from high school, or the guys they acquired (Will Howard and Justin Fields) they continue to have elite playmakers at the QB position.
The Heisman Trophy is a testament to just how good Ohio State QBS have been. In 2018, Haskins made the trip to New York but finished third. In 2019, Fields made the trip, then in 2021 and 2022, Stroud. In 2024, Howard never made the trip to the Heisman ceremony but finished the year sixth in passing yards with 4,010 yards, fourth in touchdowns 35, seventh in completions 309 and second in completion percentage (73.1).
Since 2018, there have been five starting quarterbacks for Ohio State, and all five have been picked in the NFL draft. Haskins went 15th in the first round of the 2019 draft. In 2021, Fields went 11th overall, and Stroud went sixth in 2023. In last year’s draft, Howard went in the sixth round and 2023 starter Kyle McCord, who transferred to Syracuse, went in round six.
Ohio State is tied for the most QBS taken in the draft from 2018-25, excluding McCord. Alabama and North Dakota State are the teams tied with Ohio State, with four QBs taken in that time. Alabama has had three first-round picks with one third-round, and NDSU has had one first-round pick, one fifth-round pick, one sixth-round pick and one seventh-round pick.
BREAKING: Five-Star Plus+ WR Dakorien Moore has Committed to Oregon, he tells me for @on3recruits
The No. 1 WR in ‘25 chose the Ducks over Texas, LSU, & Ohio State
“I choose the path to be different and build a legacy, let’s sco🦆”https://t.co/N7cnoc8et2 pic.twitter.com/WsveByBIyM
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) July 5, 2024
No team is perfect and Ohio State does lose some recruiting battles. Dakorien Moore picked Oregon over the Buckeyes. While teams celebrate small victories, Ohio State is winning big ones. And unfortunately for other teams, the victories will continue to pile up for Ohio State.
They have the staff and resources to pursue and acquire the targets they want. And unfortunately for the rest of college football, Ohio State has the resources to sustain the current system, but drive it up even higher.
