Depth Chart: Running Backs

The Running Back or the Cadillac position will be the next to analyze and it hasn’t gone through a ton of drama and it surely wasn’t as festive as the previous positional group.  Yes, they lost Mike Weber to the 2019 NFL Draft and Brian Snead to an eventual transfer out of Ohio State, but the depth is still solid and laced with talented players that could put spare reps to good use with what I see could be a more balanced attack offensively.

JK Dobbins would re-assume the throne as the feature back in 2019.  He will look to potentially raise his NFL Draft stock this season and if all goes well, but I do not think that is his main concern at this point of the off-season.  He will look to secure his legacy as a Buckeye, as a member of Tote Nation as he fine tunes his body for what could be a Heisman type of season.  He could leave, but he also could stay and that is difficult to predict without any games in the books, so we will just have to wait it out and see how it would turn out.

Behind Dobbins is another generation of beast Running Backs.  Redshirt Junior Demario McCall is the most seasoned players on the roster.  He has been through many injury-plagued seasons while at Ohio State, but he stuck with it and fought through his battles with adversity.  McCall is listed as a Running Back, but I could see him at the H-Back position with Jaelin Gill, which is a pretty good one-two punch at the most critical positions at Ohio State.

The true heirs to Dobbins’ room would be a pair of young studs, Master Teague and Marcus Crowley.  Teague with the limited touches a season ago, proved that he could hang with the big boys.  He has the burst and the strength to shed or run over would-be tacklers.  He could be an asset to spell Dobbins when needed.  Crowley is a monster back with a frame to destroy defenders.  Watching his high school highlights was crazy because yes, he had the strength, but when he outran the defenses?  I am excited for this kid to come into his own.

There are also a ton of talented walk-on players as well with Robert Cope, Amari McMahon, and Mitch Rossi learning under Tony Alford under the Tote Nation mantra.  This roster is absolutely loaded at the position and we would see a healthy distribution of carries as the season progresses, even for the walk-ons.  My biggest concern would be the transfer portal curse and the patience of these kids.  The Buckeyes have been hit hard at quarterback and I am hopeful that these kids have the grit and patience to wait it out.

The depth chart is easy to predict with Dobbins re-establishing himself as the feature back with Teague and Crowley as the clear back-ups.  The trio of walk-ons would assume third-stringer duties, but they could be used if games get out of hand.  The H-Backs would be McCall and Gill, but they are interchangeable and I could see them rotate between RB 2 and H-Back, depending on the situation.

It should be a fun season with an explosive Buckeye offense and we aren’t even talking about the Zone 6 or Tight End rooms yet!  Day will begin the season with high expectations, but I know he is ready for the challenge.

Projected Depth Chart:

RB 1:  JK Dobbins

RB 2:  Master Teague/Marcus Crowley/Demario McCall

RB 3:  Robert Cope/Amari McMahon/Mitch Rossi

H-Back:  Demario McCall/Jaelin Gill

Future RB’s:  None currently committed.