Ohio State has some key pieces it must replace if it has designs of competing for a fifth straight Big Ten Championship and third straight College Football Playoff appearance. As they say though, they don’t rebuild at a place like OSU, they reload with talent already chomping at the bit to get its turn.
Despite losing guys like defensive back Shaun Wade, defensive tackle Tommy Togiai, and all three starting linebackers from last season, there’s still a lot of talent returning. Pro Football Focus graded all of those players at the end of last year and we can take a peek and see what the ten best OSU defenders returning are based on those.
Some you’ll know, others might be a bit of a surprise based on sample size, but let’s get at it and see who might be the best performers this season based on 2020. And in case you missed the same drill with the offense, you can read up on that as well.
