We continue to hear from the OSU players on what their decisions are, with 12 players more or less having to walk that fine line between development, where they will go in the NFL draft, and what type of NIL opportunities might be available.<\/p>\n
We are keeping track of all the NFL draft declaration decisions from players like Caleb Downs<\/a>, Arvell Reese<\/a>, Kenyatta Jackson Jr<\/a>., Kayden McDonald<\/a>, Carnell Tate<\/a>, and others. Here’s where things stand with NFL draft decisions, updated as news becomes available.<\/p>\n Ohio State players declaring early for the NFL draftCarnell Tate, Wide Receiver<\/p>\n Date Declared | Jan. 6<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n NFL draft projection | First round<\/p>\n Caleb Downs, Safety<\/p>\n Date Declared | Jan. 7<\/p>\n NFL draft projection | First round<\/p>\n Arvell Reese, Linebacker<\/p>\n Date Declared | Jan. 8<\/p>\n NFL draft projection | First round<\/p>\n Kayden McDonald, Defensive Tackle<\/p>\n Date Declared | Jan. 9<\/p>\n NFL draft projection | First round<\/p>\n Max Klare, Tight End<\/p>\n Date Declared | Jan. 13<\/p>\n NFL draft projection | Late second to third round<\/p>\n Ohio State players returning despite being NFL draft eligibleBrandon Inniss, Wide Receiver<\/p>\n Date Decision Made | Jan. 8<\/p>\n NFL draft projection should he have declared | Mid to late round pick<\/p>\n Luke Montgomery, Left Guard<\/p>\n Date Decision Made | Jan. 13<\/p>\n NFL draft projection should he have declared | Undrafted Free Agent<\/p>\n Austin Siereveld, Left Tackle<\/p>\n Date Decision Made | Jan. 14<\/p>\n NFL draft projection should he have declared | Mid to late round pick<\/p>\n Carson Hinzman, Center<\/p>\n Date Decision Made | Jan. 14<\/p>\n NFL draft projection should he have declared | Mid-round pick<\/p>\n Kenyatta Jackson Jr., Defensive End<\/p>\n Date Decision Made | Jan. 15<\/p>\n NFL draft projection should he have declared | Second to third round pick<\/p>\n Jermaine Mathews Jr., Cornerback<\/p>\n Date Decision Made | Jan. 15<\/p>\n NFL draft projection should he have declared | Mid-to-late round pick<\/p>\n Ohio State players with NFL draft declarations pendingPhillip Daniels, Right Tackle<\/p>\n NFL draft projection should he declare | Mid-to-late round pick<\/p>\n Status | The prevailing thought is that Daniels will be returning to Ohio State, but nothing is absolutely official. It would be a major shock if he did declare early for the NFL draft, and time is running out, so we’re putting him in a return likely status, and will bring you that news as soon as anything official.<\/p>\n Contact\/Follow us\u00a0@BuckeyesWire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0Facebook\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow\u00a0Phil Harrison<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Jan. 17, 2026, 2:24 p.m. ET Ohio State continues to be an NFL pipeline and factory, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[95878,7,6,15,100078,96358,95882,96219,95930,96027,95896,95888,96683,97666,96215,95899,96008,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-685258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-draft","12":"tag-sstssportscollegebuckeyesfootball","13":"tag-sstsnfootball","14":"tag-tagamerican-football","15":"tag-tagbig-10-hub","16":"tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","17":"tag-tagcollege-sports","18":"tag-tagnational-sports","19":"tag-tagnfl","20":"tag-tagnfl-draft","21":"tag-tagohio-state-buckeyes","22":"tag-tagohio-state-buckeyes-football","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagsmg-listicle","25":"tag-tagsports-news","26":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685258","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=685258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/86628160007-buckeyescarfagnas.jpg\")