Ohio State finished the 2026 NFL Draft with 99 first round picks all-time. Will Jeremiah Smith or Julian Sayin be the program’s 100th pick?

The Pittsburgh skyline lit up Thursday night as four Buckeyes heard their names called in the first 11 picks of the NFL Draft. Carnell Tate, Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles, and Caleb Downs made Ohio State the first program to do that since Michigan State in 1967. By every measure, it was a historic night for Ohio State football, but the number that mattered most Thursday didn’t belong to any of them.

When the first round closed, the Buckeyes’ all-time total of first-round draft picks sat at 99. One away from a number no program in college football history has ever reached. Looking ahead, everyone across the sport had the same thought: will Jeremiah Smith or Julian Sayin be the program’s 100th first round draft pick?

Before we get to Smith, the number deserves context. 99 first-round picks are the product of decades of sustainability in Columbus from coaches, schemes, recruiting classes, and development staffs, upholding the standard. Moreover, what Ryan Day has done to that number in seven years is its own conversation entirely. Since Day took over in December of 2018, Ohio State has had 23 players declare for the NFL Draft early. All 23 of those players were drafted, including fourteen in the first round.

The Ryan Day era first-round list reads like a shorthand history of the league’s recent past, with 18 names from his tutelage filling it. Chase Young went No. 2 overall in 2020 and won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave were in the same first round in 2022, the first time Ohio State had ever sent two wide receivers there in the same class. Jaxon Smith-Njigba went to Seattle in 2023, and then Marvin Harrison Jr. went No. 4 to Arizona in 2024.

Ohio State’s run of top-end wide receivers wouldn’t end there. Emeka Egbuka followed in 2025 before Carnell Tate went No. 4 overall to Tennessee last Thursday, marking five consecutive drafts that saw six wide receivers all go in the first round. No program in the country has had more than three first-round wideouts in that same window. Ohio State has six, which is the most dominant positional run in the modern history of this sport. For the Buckeyes, despite all the first round talent, there’s always a “better” player waiting in the wings.

Jeremiah Smith is the next elite wide receiver out of Ohio State. He arrived in Columbus as the consensus No. 1 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, the highest-ranked wide receiver recruit of the modern era. His hype was generational, and so was his performance, which is a rare combination for a true freshman.

As a true freshman, he caught 76 passes for 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns, rewriting the freshman wide receiver record book. Those 15 scores were second in Ohio State history, behind only Terry Glenn’s 17 in 1995. He scored in each of his first seven games and caught at least one pass in every game he played.

During the College Football Playoff, he elevated his performance even higher with 19 catches, 381 yards, and five touchdowns across four games, all against top-10 opponents, capped by a Rose Bowl MVP performance against Oregon. The Rose Bowl set the stage for the third down and 11 in the fourth quarter of the National Championship. Will Howard uncorked a deep ball to Smith to ice the game with a game-clinching field goal a few plays later. Ohio State completed the greatest postseason run with a National Title.

His sophomore year brought a different kind of attention because every defensive coordinator in the country had a plan specifically designed to slow him down. He finished with 87 catches, 1,243 yards, and 12 touchdowns, still producing at an elite level alongside Carnell Tate. He was a unanimous All-American and won Big Ten Receiver of the Year for the second consecutive season. He had six 100-yard games in the regular season and added 34 catches for 682 yards in the postseason, all against teams ranked in the top 10.

Two seasons in Columbus give Jeremiah Smith 163 catches. 2,558 yards and 27 touchdowns. Those marks are all good for more receiving yards and touchdowns than any player in the country across that same stretch. He would have been the best wide receiver in this year’s draft class if eligibility rules allowed it.

The year-over-year progression tells the story by the numbers. Year one: 76 catches, 1,315 yards, 15 touchdowns. Year two: 87 catches, 1,243 yards, 12 touchdowns. Smith’s reception count went up, but yardage dipped slightly because defenses stopped pretending they could cover him with one player and started scheming entire game plans around neutralizing him. His touchdown total came down, too, partly because of midseason offensive inconsistency.

However, Year 3 sets up cleaner than either of the first two. Julian Sayin is back at quarterback with a full season of chemistry already built between them. Smith enters 2026 needing just nine touchdowns to pass Chris Olave as Ohio State’s all-time leader in receiving scores, and just 341 yards to overtake Michael Jenkins as the program’s all-time receiving yardage leader.

Both records will likely fall before November. A conservative projection puts him somewhere around 90 catches, 1,350 yards, and 14 touchdowns. A reasonable ceiling, given the situation he’s walking into, looks more like 95 catches, 1,500 yards, and 17 touchdowns. Either way, the Ohio State record book will belong to him before the calendar turns. The Heisman conversation is centered around him, too, as the 2027 NFL Draft opens with his name at the top of every board.

New York Jets senior adviser Rick Spielman said it plainly before last week’s draft. “The receiver from Ohio State, Jeremiah Smith, is coming out,” Spielman said. “He is one of the best prospects in a long time.”

Ohio State became the first program in college football history to reach 99 all-time first-round draft picks last Thursday night in Pittsburgh. The number is staggering on its own, based on a century of elite talent developed and delivered to the highest level of the sport. But numbers only mean something when they have a story attached to them, and No. 100 could have Jeremiah Smith.

NFL front offices have been circling on calendars and building roster plans around for two years. Jeremiah Smith is the reason Rick Spielman was already talking about next year’s draft before this year’s picks cleared the podium. Some projections have him as a legitimate No. 1 overall candidate, which would make him the first wide receiver taken with the top pick since Keyshawn Johnson in 1996.

As Smith prepares for his junior season, he has an abundance of individual accolades on the horizon. But for Jeremiah Smith, the most important accomplishments are team-based and the legacy he leaves behind. Fittingly, being the program’s 100th first round NFL Draft pick would cap a historic career with one last chapter to write at the collegiate level.

NEXT: Read how Jeremiah Smith’s mindset is fueling his junior season preparations.