Morning Conversational: Which Buckeyes Will Be Drafted Tonight?

Morning Conversational: Which Buckeyes Will Be Drafted Tonight?

Ohio State has had 12 players selected in the first round of the NFL Draft over the last five years, and the last time they didn’t have a first-round pick was 2015.

They made up for it the following year with five first-round picks, and that doesn’t even include Michael Thomas, who went in the second round with the 47th overall pick.

Thursday night, the 2019 NFL Draft gets underway with the first round, and when the night is over OSU’s streak of having at least one player chosen in the first round will extend to four years.

The only question is how many Buckeyes will hear their names called in the first round.

Defensive end Nick Bosa is a lock. Most expect him to be selected second overall by the San Francisco 49ers. If that happens, he would go one spot higher than his brother Joey, who went No. 3 overall to the San Diego Chargers back in 2016.

The other lock is quarterback Dwayne Haskins, but where exactly he will end up is one of the central mysteries of this  year’s draft.

For the better part of two months, Haskins was projected sixth overall to the New York Giants, but those projections seem to be moving away from Haskins and towards Duke quarterback Daniel Jones.

There are even rumors that the Washington Redskins are looking to move up to No. 5 in order to select Jones before the Giants can.

✍️ https://t.co/slSDJ8UVNt

— Tony Gerdeman (@TonyGerdeman) April 24, 2019

If that happens, then maybe Haskins will end up with the Giants like everybody expected all along.

But selecting Jones over Haskins would be a headscratcher for many reasons.

Jones was a three-year starter, so he has more experience, but his numbers never got appreciably better the older he got.

And it’s not because he put out such Haskins-like numbers that bettering them would border on the impossible.

Regardless of where Haskins goes, he won’t last past the first round, and since he’s not attending the draft, the camera won’t be stuck on him in the green room if there is a delay in his being selected.

In 2018 Dwayne Haskins threw 20 Pass TD with 2 Int in 6 games vs ranked opponents… tied for 3rd most Pass TD vs ranked teams in a season in the last 15 years!!!! @dh_simba7 @JCParolin ✌?

— Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) April 23, 2019

But will any other Buckeyes land in the first round?

Defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones, and receivers Terry McLaurin and Parris Campbell have each been projected one time or another by various outlets to be selected in the first round.

Jones, however, has seen his stock drop since the NFL Combine and now he is looking like a second day pick at best.

Because of the combine and pro day performances of Campbell and McLaurin, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see either of them sneak into the back end of the first round, but it may be a bit too optimistic to expect it.