40 best Ohio State football players this century, ranked

Best Ohio State football players this century 27. Shaun Wade – Cornerback 2018-20

Shaun Wade was on his way to being one of the best cornerbacks of this era, and that’s saying something. There have been incredible cornerbacks to come through Columbus. Wade’s 2020 season was one of the best. When he decided to return after Ohio State declared they would indeed have a season, Wade decided it was right to try his shot at a national championship one more time. It was smart for him to come back since he had his best season. He was a consensus All-American and won the Tatum–Woodson Defensive Back of the Year. Despite that, he fell all the way to the fifth round to the Baltimore Ravens.

If Wade left after 2019, he’s likely a first-round pick. However, he didn’t want things to end on a bad note. Unfortunately, it still did, but we will get to that in a moment. First, it was Wade, one of the Buckeyes’ best defenders at the time, getting kicked out of the College Football Playoff semifinal against Clemson. He was given a targeting penalty, and that really changed the game and he had to watch the rest of the loss from the locker room. The Buckeyes were winning 16-0 at the time.

The next season, Wade returned and was great. That is until the Buckeyes made the national championship. DeVante Smith made a fool out of Wade. It wasn’t a good look for him, and it likely is the reason Wade fell to the fifth round of the NFL Draft. It’s hard to ignore those two major games, but besides that Wade was close to perfect.