Ohio State Buckeyes players likely to litter NFL teams’ draft boards

By: Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -

COLUMBUS — If their five-game suspensions for the start of the 2011 season help push juniors Terrelle Pryor, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams and Dan Herron into the NFL, the Buckeyes could be in for a record-tying draft haul.

Ohio State had 14 players drafted in 2004, and there are 10 OSU seniors with at least a chance to be drafted. Throw in a player like junior center Mike Brewster, the most attractive draft prospect among the underclassmen according to analysts, and Ohio State could have a shot at 15.

“He could go in the second round,” National Football Post draft analyst Wes Bunting said of Brewster, “but offensive linemen like that usually know if they stay, they can maybe be a late first-rounder next year and improve their game.”

Three analysts said all the other OSU juniors would be better off staying, but that was before the suspensions were announced. While OSU coach Jim Tressel said this might not be the best time for the players to be going out for job interviews, an agent said that while the NFL does consider character, one suspension like this probably wouldn’t be held against the players unless a pattern of behavior was discovered.

Posey intrigued analysts with his big-play flashes, but they have questions about his hands and think he’d be behind several other junior receivers, pushing him into the middle rounds. They thought Herron was on the edge of being drafted in the late rounds or being a free agent, while Adams would be a top 10 offensive linemen next year but would slide this year. And Pryor, the analysts said emphatically, needs time, too.

“There’s so much talent there, and while he made pretty significant strides this year, I think there’s a firm belief in the scouts I’ve talked to that he could continue to make some more strides if he returned,” Rob Rang of NFLDraftScout.com said.

“I think if [Pryor] came out now, he’d be a midround pick, but he’d be looked at as more of a wide receiver,” Scott Wright of DraftCountdown.com said. “I think if he wants to play quarterback, he needs to stay in school. He’s nowhere near ready.”

A lot of other Buckeyes are. Though lacking elite draft talent, the depth of the…..

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