Jeremiah Smith’s place as the first receiver to be drafted No. 1 overall since 1996 won’t be secured by any number of additional one-handed catches, ankle-breaking jukes and double-team-splitting routes on his all-world résumé.
Even as an unexpected projected 2027 draft order begins to take shape, the Ohio State star’s chance to be selected ahead of Oklahoma State’s Drew Mestemaker, Miami’s Darian Mensah or any other quarterback about to get hot lies mostly in their hands instead of his.
“I know plenty of people who have him right now as the undisputed No. 1 overall prospect,” ESPN analyst and former NFL executive Louis Riddick told The Post.
“But he needs for the quarterbacks to not answer the bell — if Drew starts to level off or Darian doesn’t elevate his team or some other outside factor comes into play. If the evaluation is, ‘When I look at the personal and football character and the position-specific skills, I can’t really differentiate between these two,’ then positional value is going to take over and the quarterback wins out.”