Ohio State's shifting players to fill offensive line gaps

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio State's number one concern on offense is not who will play quarterback in the fall. It's who's going to protect that guy.

The Buckeyes need to replace three offensive lineman for the upcoming season after Luke Wypler, Dawand Jones and Paris Johnson Jr. all declared for the NFL Draft.

Johnson and Jones led the country in fewest quarterback pressures allowed in 2022, a standard set by Nicolas Petit-Frere and Thayer Munford in 2020 and repeated in 2021.

Johnson is a projected first round pick while Jones is expected to go in the second round. It's time for coach Ryan Day's offense to reload at tackle, and that might include moving guard Josh Fryar to left tackle.

"We felt like he had enough experience, he felt comfortable making that move. WSe'll see how that goes as we start to put the pads on. It's hard with no pads you know?," Day said. "Watching hi move his feet was really good."

Day added right tackle is a competition between sophomore Tegra Tshabola who was a backup guard last year and junior Zen Michalski who was a backup left tackle last year.

"We spent a lot of time figuring out if that was the right move but we felt like making Josh [Fryar] the left tackle and then making those guys compete at right tackle was the right play," Day said. "It'll take a little bit of an adjustment for them. Certainly for Tegra making the move from inside to outside and then Zen from left to right."

Meanwhile, the center battle is between Carson Hinzman and Viktor Cutler Jr. right now.

"First day it's kind of hard to tell but I don't think anybody looked out of place and they're going against a good front," Day said. "We're going to get a great evaluation as we head through 15 practices."