Jeremiah Smith’s 2027 NFL Draft outlook: Where does the Ohio State football star rank amongst WR prospects since 2000?
Jeremiah Smith has been a major talking point ahead of his final season at Ohio State. As a wide reciever prospect, the Buckeyes star matches up with the best ever.
Ohio State football has one final season of WR Jeremiah Smith for fans to enjoy before he makes the expected jump to the NFL. It’s hard to tell when another talent like Smith is going to walk through the doors, but there’s going to be some bold claims made about the talent he is over the next 12 months. He deserves every bit of it with what he’s done through two seasons in Columbus.
When looking at Smith as a 2027 NFL Draft prospect, it’s not easy to find many wide receivers over the last couple of decades who stack up better coming out of college. Todd McShay has already said he believes the Ohio State wideout could be the best to ever do it.
In a fun offseason exercise, four writers at A to Z Sports have named the top five wide receivers to come out since 2000. The NFL careers aren’t really weighed in here so much; instead, it’s everything they did before, their athletic profile, and the hype they created around them.
Jeremiah Smith stats and facts
- Smith was the No. 1 overall recruit in the class of 2024 that Ohio State was able to beat out Miami (FL) for.
- Ohio State’s star wideout is the cousin of New York Jets QB Geno Smith.
- Smith is averaging 88.2 yards per game in college through his first 29 games for 2,558 receiving yards.
Pro Football Hall of Fame member leads the pack, but Jeremiah Smith isn’t far away
- 1. Larry Fitzgerald
- 2. Jeremiah Smith
- 3. Calvin Johnson
- 4. Julio Jones
- 5. A.J. Green
Watching the entirety of every game Smith has played in over the last two seasons has been a real treat. From the moment Ryan Day was careful with the Ohio State star in his first spring game, you knew he was going to be something special. The way Smith moves at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds is unworldly before and after he gets the ball in his hands. Smith is going to shatter the Ohio State record book in the receiving category in just three seasons. The Florida native has 2,558 receiving yards and 29 total touchdowns in 29 career games.
When combining what Smith’s athletic profile shows, the tape he’s put on display, his ability to impact right away at the highest level in college football, and college production — there’s only one player I can put over him. Larry Fitzgerald was special at Pittsburgh and only got two seasons to put on a show in college. Fitzgerald had 2,677 receiving yards and 34 touchdowns in his only two seasons at the Power Four level. If he had gotten three seasons, it would have been quite the show.
Fitzgerald went on to become the No. 3 overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft and lived up to the hype that he had as a draft prospect. Smith can put out an unreal junior season to pass him, but it’s hard to put him at the top right now. — Brandon Little
Jeremiah Smith is chasing just two players heading into his final college season
- 1. Calvin Johnson
- 2. Julio Jones
- 3. Jeremiah Smith
- 4. Ja’Marr Chase
- 5. Larry Fitzgerald
“This was a tall task, given that I looked at the past 25 years of NFL Draft prospects at the WR position, but I feel good about my rankings. Larry Fitzgerald was viewed as one of the safest prospects in his class, and all he did was put together a Hall of Fame career in Arizona. Ja’Marr Chase didn’t even play his final year of college football and still went sky high because of how dominant he was at LSU, and all he’s done is win the triple crown.
When I get to the top three, though, that’s where things get tricky. Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, and Jeremiah Smith are all cut from the slot cloth —- the alien one. Huge frames with lanky arms and elite top-end explosion. I give Johnson the edge because he’s the tallest of the three and weighed the most at the Combine with insane 36-inch arms yet a 4.3 40-yard dash. Smith is no slouch in his measurables, and I truly believe that if he puts up another monster year at OSU and does work in the pre-draft process, he has a chance to be the best WR prospect since the turn of the century.” — Rob Gregson, A to Z Sports
Jeremiah Smith is the best in at least the last 15 years
- 1. Jeremiah Smith
- 2. Ja’Marr Chase
- 3. Justin Blackmon
- 4. Amari Cooper
- 5. Sammy Watkins
The first year I began scouting NFL Draft prospects was during the 2012 cycle, which featured former Oklahoma State superstar Justin Blackmon, most notably. Without having actually scouted Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones during their times, it feels unfair to adequately comment on how Jeremiah Smith stacked up to them, at least from the full scope evaluation process perspective.
Since the 2012 NFL Draft, however, Smith is the best wide receiver that I have scouted, just narrowly edging out former LSU star Ja’Marr Chase in the 2021 NFL Draft. Other notable names during that stretch include Marvin Harrison Jr. (Ohio State), Sammy Watkins (Clemson), Amari Cooper (Alabama), and Travis Hunter (Colorado). While there are some very quality names on that list, the three best that I have evaluated are Smith, Chase, and Blackmon (people forget how great he was coming out).
What separates Smith compared to the other two is his combination of size and overall explosiveness. He is just a unique blend of movement skills at 6-3 and 220 pounds. There aren’t many players who could come in as a freshman and become arguably the best wide receiver in college football. Smith is a special, special athlete who is only getting better. — Ryan Roberts
Surprising names pass up Jeremiah Smith when looking at the best WR prospects
- 1. Peter Warrick
- 2. Andre Johnson
- 3. Jeremiah Smith
- 4. A.J. Green
- 5. Calvin Johnson
Looking at the best wide receiver prospects of the 21st Century is fascinating. The key to building out this list is going to be ignoring what they did in the NFL. Just from a prospect perspective, I started by narrowing the focus to just the top 10 picks. From there, it was based on what their profile was at the time.
Smith ranks third for me, ahead of Megatron and A.J. Green. It’s fair to remember that Megatron had a lot of predraft questions about him coming from Paul Johnson’s triple option offense. He does rank slightly behind Johnson and Warrick, who were dominant in a different way. People forget how incredible Warrick was in multiple phases, from special teams to gadget plays, and attacking all three levels of the field. His NFL career never panned out, but he was dynamite for the Seminoles in every way. — Tyler Forness
