Johnson, the team’s third-round pick, and Black, a fifth-round selection, both played only at Iowa. Sawyer, a fourth-round pick, was recruited by and spent his entire career at Ohio State. Bruener and Kent, the team’s two seventh-round picks, spent the entirety of their collegiate days at Washington and Central Michigan, respectively.
The two players who did transfer were special cases.
Harmon, the team’s first-round pick, chose to stay close to home at Michigan State. He wanted to remain there, but left after Mel Tucker, the head coach who recruited him, was fired during the 2023 season. As it was, he spent three years at Michigan State.
Howard, meanwhile, spent four years at Kansas State before transferring to Ohio State.
• With Justin Tucker being released earlier this week by the Ravens and potentially out of the NFL given his off-field issues, it leaves Chris Boswell as arguably the best kicker currently in the NFL.
Of course, that was arguable the past couple of seasons, as well, as the usually reliable Tucker struggled in his final two years in Baltimore, seeing his career field goal percentage drop below 90 percent.
Boswell has been at or above 90 percent on his field goal percentage in five of the past six seasons. Currently, he is fourth all-time at 88.026 percent. Tucker is first at 89.103 percent.
Boswell has made 272 of 309 career kicks, including making 41 of 44 attempts last season and 29 of 31 kicks in 2023.
If Boswell makes his average of the past two seasons – 35 of 37.5 kicks – his career percentage would increase to 88.6 percent, still just short of Tucker’s career mark. But closing fast.
Considering Boswell’s 82.7 career percentage from 50 yards and beyond is the best in NFL history for players with at least 50 attempts – by a large margin – and three of his five misses in the past two seasons have been from those distances, he could make a strong push at first place.
• Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward turned 36 earlier this week.
Heyward is coming off a season in which he recorded 71 tackles, 8 sacks and 11 pass defenses, which led all NFL defensive linemen. He earned first-team All-Pro status for the fourth time in his career.