unanimous All-American season<\/a> in 2025.\n<\/p>\n\n\tFrom an NFL draft stock perspective, the only Buckeye who\u2019s entered the draft with another year of eligibility that had reason to stay at Ohio State was Klare. Currently projected as a likely third-round draft pick, Klare could have potentially improved his draft stock in 2026 by putting up bigger numbers as a pass-catcher and continuing to improve as a blocker. Unlike Downs, McDonald, Reese and Tate, however, Klare has already played four years of college football; he had a fifth year of eligibility because he redshirted his first season at Purdue in 2022, but ultimately decided not to use it.\n<\/p>\n
\tDraft-Eligible Confirmed Returners\u00a0(5)<\/p>\n
\n\tWR Brandon Inniss
LT Austin Siereveld
LG Luke Montgomery
C Carson Hinzman
DE Kenyatta Jackson Jr.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tSiereveld, Montgomery and Hinzman all would have had a shot at being drafted if they had entered the draft, with Siereveld likely drafted first among them, but all of them made a smart decision to stay at Ohio State for another year. Siereveld and Montgomery have only been full-time starters for one season, so another year at Ohio State should help them continue to develop and elevate their draft stock. Hinzman has more experience but was projected to be a late-round pick, so he\u2019ll look to boost his stock with a big final season as a Buckeye.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tInniss likely would have gone undrafted after catching just 36 passes for 271 yards and three touchdowns in his first season as a starter, so it would have come as a surprise if he had entered the draft early.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tJackson was seen as the biggest threat to leave from this group \u2013 in part because, like Klare, he\u2019s already been in college for four years. But Jackson entered last season with expectations of being a first-round draft pick, and he would have more likely been a third- or fourth-round pick if he entered the draft this year. By staying at Ohio State, he has a chance to maximize his draft stock as the leader of the Buckeyes\u2019 defensive line in his second year as a starter.\n<\/p>\n
\tExpected to Return (2)<\/p>\n
\n\tCB Jermaine Mathews Jr.
RT Phillip Daniels<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tThere\u2019s no requirement for players to publicly announce their NFL draft decisions, and the transfer portal remains open until the end of the day Friday, so the fact that\u00a0Mathews and\u00a0Daniels haven\u2019t announced they\u2019re leaving doesn\u2019t guarantee that they\u2019re staying. That said, the expectation all along has been that they would most likely stay at Ohio State.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tMathews was also a potential middle-round pick if he declared for the NFL draft, but he has plenty of room to improve his draft stock as he\u2019s only been a full-time starter at Ohio State for one year. Daniels was never seen as a likely candidate to enter the NFL draft, especially considering he still has two more years of eligibility, but is listed here since he was a starter for the Buckeyes in 2025 and could have entered the draft as a redshirt sophomore.\n<\/p>\n
\tOutgoing Seniors (11)<\/p>\n
\n\tLB Sonny Styles
DE Caden Curry
CB Davison Igbinosun
TE Will Kacmarek
CB Lorenzo Styles Jr.
DT Tywone Malone Jr.
RB CJ Donaldson
OL Ethan Onianwa
K Jayden Fielding
LS John Ferlmann
QB Eli Brickhandler<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tAll of these players became NFL draft prospects as soon as Ohio State\u2019s season ended, as each of them exhausted their collegiate eligibility in 2025.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tSonny Styles is the top draft prospect among Ohio State\u2019s outgoing seniors as a projected first-round pick. If Styles, Downs, McDonald, Reese and Tate are all selected in Round 1, Ohio State would tie its school record with five first-round picks, a mark it previously hit 20 years ago in 2006 and again 10 years ago in 2016.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tCurry and Igbinosun both project as likely middle-round draft picks while Kacmarek will be a prospect to watch on Day 3. The rest of Ohio State\u2019s seniors currently appear likely to go undrafted, though Lorenzo Styles, Malone, Donaldson, Onianwa and Ferlmann should at least get opportunities to compete for roster spots as undrafted free agents.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tNote:<\/strong>\u00a0This article was updated after Kenyatta Jackson Jr.\u2019s Thursday afternoon announcement<\/a> that he is staying at Ohio State for his fifth-year senior season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ohio State lost five players to early NFL draft entries, but it appears the Buckeyes will retain seven…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":518458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-518457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115900396756077008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}