Sam Farmer’s final NFL mock draft put Ohio State football at the center of the opening night conversation, projecting four Buckeyes in the top 10 and five in the first round. In his projection, Arvell Reese went second overall to the New York Jets, Caleb Downs fifth to the New York Giants, Carnell Tate sixth to the Cleveland Browns and Sonny Styles seventh to the Washington Commanders.
The mock also had quarterback Fernando Mendoza going first overall after leading Indiana to a national championship, while Farmer said Mendoza was likely to be the only quarterback taken in the opening round. That would leave the rest of the first round heavy on edge rushers and receivers, but the early stretch would still belong to Ohio State, with four players gone before any other program could match that pace.
Farmer’s projection lands at a moment when the draft’s shape feels unusually top-heavy. The NFL’s founders met at the Fort Pitt Hotel in Pittsburgh in 1935 and voted unanimously to create a draft selection process in reverse order of the previous season’s standings, and that basic structure still drives the league’s most scrutinized night. This year’s early board, at least in Farmer’s view, would be defined by premium defensive talent, pass-catching skill and the kind of star power that can alter a franchise quickly.
For the Raiders, the larger backdrop is less glamorous. Over the past four seasons, Las Vegas went 21-41, and last season its offense scored a league-worst 241 points. The team is entering another reboot, and that makes the top of the draft one of the few realistic places to change course fast. A projection like this does not guarantee the board will fall that way, but it shows how thin the line can be between a rebuilding club and one that suddenly owns the center of the draft.
However it turns out, the message from this mock is plain: ohio state football is not just producing prospects, it is crowding the front of the draft in a way that could reshape the first round before the night is halfway over.
