Jeremiah Smith is the best wide receiver prospect the sport has produced since Julio Jones.
The Ohio State junior has already established himself as the No. 1 overall prospect on essentially every 2027 NFL Draft board. He is 6-foot-3, 223 pounds, has run a legitimate 4.32 forty, and produced at a Heisman-level rate as a true freshman before backing it up as a sophomore. Scouts have him with an overall grade of 1.7 on the industry scale, which is basically the highest score any receiver has ever received.
He is not going to slip. He is not going to slide. He is going first overall next April, and the only real question is which team gets lucky enough to be picking.
Smith is the rare receiver who does everything at an elite level. He runs a full route tree. He can beat press coverage. He wins contested catches at the highest rate in college football. He is a threat after the catch. He blocks. He does not drop passes. Scouts cannot really find any flaws in his game beyond the standard question of how well the receiver traits translate to the NFL, and Smith has been so dominant that the concern seems more like a formality than a real worry.
The last time we saw a receiver with this kind of profile before he was drafted, it was Ja’Marr Chase, and Chase has already made it clear he is one of the best receivers in the NFL. Smith is bigger than Chase, faster than Chase, and has been more productive at the same age. That is the ceiling.
The Ohio State offense is going to feed him all year. Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly know what they have, and Smith is going to see 15-plus targets a game against the best defenses in the country. If he stays healthy, he is a lock to break every Ohio State receiving record and put up numbers that will remove any doubt about his draft position.
The 2027 draft class overall is set up to be one of the deepest in years. Cam Coleman from Texas is projected as the No. 2 receiver, and he is a legitimate top-10 talent in his own right. Arch Manning could go top-five as a quarterback. Dante Moore is going to get first-round grades. But Smith is the belle of the ball, and it is not close.
The team that ends up with the first overall pick is going to be a franchise transformer. Franchise receivers change the trajectory of an entire offense the way Chase changed the Bengals, the way Justin Jefferson changed the Vikings, the way Puka Nacua raised the Rams’ ceiling immediately.
Tanking for Smith is already a real conversation for the bottom of the NFL. The Panthers, Titans, Browns, and Giants are the projected worst rosters. All of them badly need a receiver. All of them have front-office jobs on the line. The pressure on some of those teams to bottom out this fall is real.
Smith himself has said all the right things. He is focused on the Ohio State season, he wants to win a championship, and he is not thinking about the draft. That is the correct answer. But everyone else in football is thinking about it.
Ohio State opens against Texas on August 30. Smith and Cam Coleman on the same field will be must-watch television for scouts everywhere.
The 2027 draft is going to be Jeremiah Smith’s night. It has already been decided.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
