Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith gets 2028 flag football Olympics competition prediction from CBS Sports

Zain Bando

Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith gets 2028 flag football Olympics competition prediction from CBS Sports image

© Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Jeremiah Smith has already become a breakout superstar at Ohio State in just one season.

Whether it's acrobatic catches, winning a national title, being a quiet leader or just doing a bit of everything, Smith has become a major vocal point of a potentially duplicated high-powered offense (just with a new quarterback this coming season).

But, looking ahead to Smith's future NFL endeavors, some pundits like CBS Sports' Shehan Jeyarajah say the Buckeye speedster could find himself playing a different type of football: flag football. Given the NFL's initiative to begin the venture with the 2028 Olympics, Jeyarajah revealed Smith as one of five possible stars who could fill the void.

"If there's one player still in college football who has a serious chance of making the team, it's Smith,"  Jeyarajah wrote Tuesday.

Jeyarajah validated his point by recalling that several NFL pundits, including ex-QB Dan Orlovsky, would have projected Smith as the No. 1 overall pick in this April's draft had he not been a freshman.

Smith still has a few years left to perform at the highest level, but if he makes the Olympic team, all bets are off regarding his true ceiling.

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"Expectations are off the charts," Jeyarajah wrote. "By far the biggest hurdle is the depth of wide receiver talent in the NFL for a vastly limited number of spots, but by 2028, Smith could establish himself as one of the best."

For now, three years separate this reality from potentially occurring. But, having Smith represent his former school, and the NFL could only do him wonders for how popular he may become as a professional athlete now just in football, but overall across all American sports.

That said, Smith has some more important ventures to focus on, like attempting to help his team repeat as national champions.

But, nevertheless, seeing Smith try to solidify himself as the fastest player on the field even without full pads on would be pretty interesting.

As such, it's still a dream, but it certainly is fun to picture what it might look like.

Zain Bando

Zain Bando is a freelance writer for The Sporting News. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. Over the years, Bando has written about various beats surrounding Illinois, Northwestern, and Kansas State Athletics but sticks to the Big Ten as his primary expertise. Outside of collegiate reporting, Bando covers MMA and boxing for MMA Knockout On Sports Illustrated and hosts/co-hosts two podcasts as part of the Empty The Bench Podcast Network – Bando's Breakdowns and The MMA Outsiders, which air weekly on YouTube and are distributed on all podcast platforms Wednesday nights and Friday afternoons. Bando is a Chicago Suburban native and a member of the FWAA and USBWA, continuing to hone his professional skills as a sports journalist and media personality. Since June 2019, Bando's byline has been featured in numerous media outlets, including MSN, Yardbarker, Deadspin, FanSided, BJPenn.com, Bridge Media Network (Sports News Highlights), Mike Farrell Sports, Reuters, and more. When Bando is not writing, he binges on old UFC fights, spends time with family and friends, memorizes every Super Bowl, and manifests all the places he still has to travel to (even while bringing his laptop).