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Landing Spots Determine Ohio State Players' NFL Success

Buckeyes going in lower rounds will be impacted by opportunities they receive

Bruce Hooley

Landing Spots Determine Ohio State Players' NFL Success
Landing Spots Determine Ohio State Players' NFL Success /

Some fans undoubtedly raised their eyebrows when Washington selected Terry McLaurin in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft.

McLaurin didn't have eye-popping statistics at Ohio State, where he never caught more than 35 passes in any of his four seasons.

OSU fans knew him as a touchdown-maker -- 11 TD catches his senior year -- and a special-teams force, but even they were surprised he went with the 13th pick of the third round.

"Has the talent to become an NFL backup," NFL.com's scouting profile said of McLaurin.

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Instead, McLaurin became the first wide receiver in NFL history -- whoa, don't skip over that too fast....the first receiver in NFL history -- to catch at least five passes and one touchdown pass in each of his first three games.

So, those who believe McLaurin made the NFL all-rookie team solely because he was re-uninted with former OSU teammate Dwayne Haskins should consider that McLaurin carved out his own niche long before Haskins took over as the Redskins' starter.

That's what can happen when the right player lands in the right situation, even if sometimes it's on the wrong team.

Washington is one of the dumpster fires of the NFL, but it had an availability for McLaurin to capitalize on and he did.

That's what former Buckeyes like K.J. Hill, Austin Mack, Binjamin Victor, Robert Landers, Jordan Fuller, Davon Hamilton, Branden Bowen, Jonah Jackson and Damon Arnette are hoping for this weekend in the NFL Draft.

Urban Meyer, who recruited all of them to Ohio State, knows how important it is for players to land with an organization that knows how to use them.

Otherwise, they can wash out of the NFL quickly without ever getting a chance to optimize their potential.

"I hear someone say, 'Well, he's a bad player.' I'm thinking, 'You're out of your mind,' 'He's a bad player.' They're the best of the best of the best," Meyer said Wednesday on WTVN Radio. "But they get stuck in some terrible situations."

Is that what's happened to Billy Price in Cincinnati, taken by the Bengals No. 21 two years ago?

Price won the Rimington Award as the nation's best center at OSU in 2017, but he's been a disappointment with the Bengals at guard.

Cincinnati is another franchise with a checkered reputation, but the Bengals have been a great landing spot for defensive end Sam Hubbard, taken in the third round in the same draft as Price.

Eli Apple and Darron Lee, taken 10th and 20th overall, respectively in OSU's five-player first round in 2016, both struggled to produce in New York.

Apple was called a, "cancer," by a teammate on the Giants in 2018, got traded to New Orleans in mid-2019, and recently had a one-year deal with Las Vegas fall through, leaving him a free agent.

Lee was consistently rated one of the NFL's worst linebackers in analytics metrics before the Jets traded him to Kansas City for a sixth-round pick. He was inactive for the 2020 Super Bowl.

"The mind is a powerful thing," Meyer said. "We all know that. All of the sudden, you get stuck in some dysfunctional organization. You get stuck with a bad culture. Then, all of the sudden, a kid becomes a bad player. Which is absolutely nonsense that he becomes a bad player. He's just in a tough situation.

"I want these guys to go win. I talk to them non-stop. It's like I'm a psychologist when I have to talk to some of these guys that are losing. Imagine getting in a car every day and going to work and knowing you are going to lose. Those guys aren't used to that. Who does? Who gets used to that?"

Ohio State's current draft hopefuls can only cross their fingers that's not their NFL fate.

Each wants to go to a team that has a roster spot and a role they can fill, with a position coach that can get the most out of their talent, and teammates who accentuate their abilities.

"If they go to great places, I think they will be great players," Meyer said. "Imagine K.J. Hill. I think K.J. Hill is going to play 10 years in the NFL. He's one of the best players at any position I've ever been around. He's tough. He's smart. He's a great teammate. He'll do anything at any time for anyone. 

"Damon Arnette? Someone said he's a second-round corner. We've had first-round corners, I think, for seven straight years. He's not a second-round corner. And Jordan Fuller is a high, high-, high-end guy, but, you know...I just hope he goes to the right place."

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Bruce Hooley
BRUCE HOOLEY

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