Taken 122nd overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, Lathan Ransom became one of the most intriguing players taken on Day 3 of the event. The former Ohio State safety was second-fiddle to Caleb Downs in the Buckeyes’ secondary in terms of media recognition, so his NFL tenure is an opportunity to emerge as his own star.<\/p>\n
Through three preseason games, Ransom looks like “one of the steals of the draft,” per Chase Brown of 11Warriors<\/a>. Take a look at this interception against the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n View the original article<\/a> to see embedded media.<\/p>\n Ransom, a tenacious safety from Tucson, Arizona, etched his name into Ohio State football lore during a five-year career from 2020 to 2024. Arriving as a highly touted recruit from Salpointe Catholic High School, Ransom quickly adapted to the Big Ten’s intensity, contributing to one of college football’s premier defenses.<\/p>\n As a freshman in 2020, he appeared in seven games, recording five tackles and one pass defended. His sophomore year in 2021 saw a breakout with 38 tackles, three tackles for loss, one sack, five passes defended, and one forced fumble across 13 games. However, Ransom’s resilience was tested early; he suffered a broken leg in the 2022 Rose Bowl, yet bounced back strongly in 2022 with a career-high 74 tackles, four tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one interception, three passes defended, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery in 12 games.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In 2023, a Lisfranc injury sidelined him for five games, limiting him to 34 tackles, two tackles for loss, one interception, two passes defended, and one forced fumble. Returning for a fifth year in 2024, Ransom delivered his best season: 76 tackles, nine tackles for loss, one sack, one interception, two passes defended, three forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery, helping Ohio State reach the College Football Playoff National Championship.<\/p>\n Career totals: 227 tackles (142 solo), 18 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, three interceptions, 13 passes defended, six forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries. His accolades include being a 2022 Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist and earning first-team All-Big Ten honors in 2024.<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports<\/a> on Aug 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football<\/a> section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taken 122nd overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, Lathan Ransom became one of the most intriguing players taken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[613,4132,7,6193,5820,2220,6,15,1446,1570,57,15987],"class_list":{"0":"post-312481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-caleb-downs","9":"tag-chase-brown","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-forced-fumble","12":"tag-interception","13":"tag-lathan-ransom","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-draft","16":"tag-ohio-state","17":"tag-ohio-state-football","18":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","19":"tag-preseason-games"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115080962221655028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}