Ohio State Football Has Eye-Popping Number of Top-Five 2026 NFL Draft Prospects

The Ohio State Buckeyes are certainly not void of talent as they enter the 2025 college football season.

On top of returning players like Caleb Downs and Jeremiah Smith, the Buckeyes will be bringing in two of the top-five recruits in the Class of 2025, quarterback Tavien St. Clair and cornerback Devin Sanchez. Both of those players will likely be top-ten picks in the future, but they won't be eligible for the 2026 NFL Draft.

A handful of Buckeyes will be, and many of those players, per Matt Miller and Jordan Reid in a recent ESPN article, are among the top-five prospects at their position. Without a top-five quarterback or running back prospect, the first Buckeye named was Carnell Tate, ranked as the 4th- and 5th-best prospect respectively by Reid and Miller. Next up was tight end, where Max Klare was ranked in the top five by both analysts.

While linebacker Sonny Styles cracked Reid's top five at the position, he missed Miller's rankings. That said, the last but certainly not least Ohio State player to be named was Caleb Downs, who both analysts had as the top prospect at safety.

The full breakdown can be read here, although there isn't much on the Buckeyes outside of seeing their name appear. They do rundown a player to watch outside of the top five and the hardest player to rank, but neither of those featured any Ohio State players.

With the season inching closer, fans will get these types of highlights coming to them in late August.