Julian Sayin has already put himself on the NFL radar at Ohio State, but the next step is the one that really matters.
The Buckeyes keep pumping out pro talent, and that matters for a quarterback trying to build first-round momentum. Ohio State sent 11 players into the NFL Draft this past spring, including four in the opening round in Pittsburgh, Pa. That kind of pipeline only strengthens the case for a player like Sayin, especially with names such as Seattle Seahawks wide receiver and recently crowned Super Bowl champion Jaxon Smith-Njigba adding to the program’s reputation.
Sayin’s own rise has been fast. He threw 32 touchdowns last season as a redshirt freshman, though he is a sophomore academically, after entering the Transfer Portal in Jan. 2024 following Nick Saban's retirement as the Alabama Crimson Tide coach. Once he took over for former quarterback Will Howard, he delivered a strong first year as Ohio State’s starter, completing 77 percent of his passes and helping the Buckeyes reach the College Football Playoff.
The run ended with an early Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic loss to the Miami Hurricanes, but the season gave evaluators enough to start sorting out what Sayin is - and what still needs work.
One anonymous NFC scout told ESPN's Jordan Reid that the concern is obvious enough to keep Sayin from locking in that first-round buzz if it doesn’t get cleaned up quickly.
“I liked his tape, but the traits are just so limited in a near-perfect setup of surroundings, and you saw that in the playoff,” the scout uttered.
The biggest issue, according to the report, is his work as a pocket passer. Sayin was sacked 16 times last season even though Ohio State finished 12-2.
Ten of those sacks came in the Big Ten title game against Indiana and in the loss to Miami, with five in each game. The other six were spread across wins over Grambling State, Ohio, Washington, Wisconsin, Purdue, UCLA and Michigan.
Even with those rough spots, there’s plenty in the profile that keeps scouts interested. Sayin posted a top-three QBR at 88.4 last season, and an AFC scout pointed to his accuracy as a major selling point given how little college tape there is to study.
"But another AFC scout said, "He's super accurate and operates at a really high level. I think people are underrating him and forgetting that he was in his first year as a starter," the scout countered, per Reid.
Ohio State opens its season Saturday, Sept. 5 against Ball State, and Sayin enters it with NFL personnel already paying attention. The question now is whether he can build on what he showed last December and turn that early promise into something even bigger.
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What makes the miss harder to shake is the sense that the Buckeyes may have been chasing a player who never fully embraced the idea of being in their program. When a recruitment goes on that long and ends with that kind of disappointment, it raises the obvious question for Ohio State: whether all that investment was ever going to produce the return it hoped for, or whether the real edge in this race was something the Buckeyes could not match. [Read more 🡒]