The Ohio State Buckeyes in the NFL set the pace for the largest amount of active contracts.
As if Ohio State needed another recruiting pitch, they have absolutely found one. This is maybe a chicken or egg situation because the question is, are Ohio State players so successful in the NFL because they went to Ohio State, or were they just destined for success and happened to go to Ohio State?
If it is the ladder, then it is truly quite the coincidence because what is going on at the NFL level for the former Ohio State Buckeyes is quite absurd.
The former Buckeyes in the league, combined, have a total active contract amount of nearly half a billion dollars, at $444 million. It is $14 million more than the second-place team, which is the Alabama Crimson Tide.
This number is set to totally balloon as 25 of the 70 active Ohio State players have been drafted in the last two seasons. Once that crop of players gets to their second contracts, that number is going to climb.
It is very simple: if you want to go to the NFL, you go to Ohio State. That's been the case for almost the entirety of the Ohio State program, and there are no signs of stopping any time soon.
The stretch of Ohio State football that has spanned more than the last 20 years has been some of the best football that the sport has ever seen.
From the Jim Tressel era, who coached Cam Heyward, who is still doing it for the Pittsburgh Steelers, to Urban Meyer, who coached a lot of the current veterans, such as Denzel Ward and Joey Bosa, to Ryan Day, who shepherded the current slate of young stars, it is a total Buckeye wave of greatness at the next level.
Just last season, the Offensive Player of the Year was one of the best Buckeyes of all time, and it was an absolute surprise to no one.
The young guys who are all just getting started are going to be a force to be reckoned with in the very near future. Guys like Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate, along with Lathan Ransom and Denzel Burke, all have the opportunity to become great players in this league.
As they say, these players are "Developed Here," and part of that development is getting them ready to play at the next level and do so in a way that gets them paid.
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