Why Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith already ‘locked in’ as Mel Kiper Jr.’s No. 1 prospect for 2027 NFL Draft appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith has proven to be the best player in the nation. Smith has obliterated records while at Ohio State and, now that he is eligible for the NFL Draft at the end of the season, is sure to go early. Recently, NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. named Smith the top player on his big board.
Now, Kiper is reaffirming that ranking, going as far as to call it locked in, speaking with Field Yates on ESPN’s First Draft.
” I’m not trying to bait you or lead you into something, but is there any way that you can imagine Jeremiah Smith, absent an injury, not finishing as the number one player on your board?” Yates asked Kiper.
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“No, it’s not going to happen. Field, I think that’s pretty much locked in. You write that in pen. He’s a great player. We’ve seen it since the freshman year where we would have probably had him in our top three to five overall big board, maybe a little higher. So we’ve been waiting for this moment this year,” Kiper said.
There has long been speculation that Smith would have gone early in the 2025 NFL Draft had he not been a true freshman and not eligible to be drafted. The same likely would have happened in the 2026 NFL Draft when the Tennessee Titans took his Ohio State teammate Carnell Tate fourth overall.
“When you look at Jeremiah Smith, if you say grade and he’s a 99, the next guy would probably be a 96, 97. So, nobody’s going to be touching Jeremiah Smith in terms of rating for this draft,” Kiper added
“Yeah, we’ll have plenty of conversations about positional value,” Yates added. “And if the team that needs a quarterback lands the number one overall pick, would they take a quarterback or would they take Jeremiah Smith and figure out quarterback at a different time? We’re a long ways away from that.”
Smith is already getting compared to Hall of Fame-level wide receivers, and the praise is fair.
“I think the simplest way to put it, and somebody texted me this over the weekend, Mel, is that the comp that you often hear surrounding Jeremiah Smith is that he might be Julio Jones and even a little bit better. We’ll see,” Yates continued. “Julio Jones obviously had a Hall of Fame career in the NFL. But the fact that you can say that and the reaction from the person that hears it isn’t, ‘Stop it. That’s ridiculous. You’re crazy.”‘ The fact that the reaction is, ‘Oh, that kind of makes a little bit of sense,’ is very telling about how good of a player Jeremiah Smith is.”
A wideout has not gone first overall since Keyshawn Johnson was selected first overall by the New York Jets out of USC. The 2027 NFL Draft is set to begin April 29.
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