Fresh off winning a national championship, the Ohio State Buckeyes, naturally, had a ton of talent to replace. While quarterback and defensive line got the majority of the attention in that regard, though, replenishing the offensive line might've been the most important area to address. There are still questions about the group in front of Ryan Day and Brian Hartline's offense, but it does seem as if one of Ohio State's big transfer additions, offensive tackle Phillip Daniels, isn't necessarily paying immediate dividends.
Daniels came to Columbus by way of the Minnesota Golden Gophers, where he started the final four games of the season for P.J. Fleck's team as a redshirt freshman. He was projected to come in and be Minnesota's starting right tackle before he, instead, entered the transfer portal. That ultimately brought Day and Ohio State calling to help replenish a group that lost Josh Simmons, Donovan Jackson, Josh Fryar and Seth McLaughlin from last year's title-winning group.
Following the spring, however, Daniels is currently not the projected starter at right tackle, his natural position at this point in his young college career. Instead, that seems likely to go to redshirt sophomore Austin Siereveld, who Day declared was "going to be a starter" in the spring.
Having said that, even that comment doesn't mean that Daniels won't have a key role to play — it just means that it hasn't happened quite yet for him in the coaches' eyes.
Ohio State transfer Phillip Daniels hasn't racked starting O-line yet
During his time at Minnesota, Daniels showed his youth and inexperience, particularly in his starts. He was only even an average run blocker in just one of his starts and an average pass blocker in another start, according to PFF's grading ($). Having said that, there remains a lot of reason to believe in the 6-foot-5, 315-pounder, which is why Ohio State felt confident enough to bring him into the fold via the transfer portal.
At the same time, if Day was confident enough in Sieverveld's performance in the spring while working at tackle with another transfer, Ethan Onianwa from Rice, seemingly locking down the left tackle job, then it was always going to be an uphill climb for Daniels to usurp either player for one of the starting bookend jobs.
The good news for Daniels is that Day didn't lock Sieverveld into a starting tackle job, just a starting job. That could be crucial for Daniels eventually currying enough favor, assuming he has a strong early fall camp, and cracking the starting offensive line.
There have been rumblings among Buckeyes faithful that redshirt junior Tegra Tshabola might not be the best option at right guard. In fact, that speculation has made many wonder if Sieverveld would be better served slotting back inside into that role, which would then likely push Daniels into the starting right tackle role.
Obviously, we have fall camp and a few more weeks for this to all be figured out. However, what's clear right now is that Daniels hasn't necessarily made the immediate impact at Ohio State, particularly on the coaches, that some would've hoped. The good news for him and the Buckeyes is that there's still plenty of time for that to change.