Analyst: Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith give Ohio State major juice, but not a top-2 offense

Ohio State enters the 2026 season with one of its most discussed offensive storylines centered on the quarterback-receiver connection between Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith. In a recent assessment published by Yahoo Sports, an analyst argued that even with that duo returning, Ohio State should not be viewed as having one of the top two offenses in the sport this year.

The crux of the argument, as presented in the report, is that Sayin and Smith are capable of generating explosive, difference-making moments, but the overall offense cannot be evaluated as just two players. That framing is familiar in college football preview season, when the league’s best offenses are typically defined by repeatable production across the full attack: protection, route-window timing, run game efficiency, and the ability to move the ball consistently when big plays do not show up immediately.

Sayin and Smith are notable because they represent the kind of dynamic that can change an offense’s ceiling. A quarterback and top receiver pairing can compress coverages and influence defensive game plans, which can open the rest of the playbook. Still, the analyst’s point, as characterized in the Yahoo Sports piece, suggests that Ohio State’s duo will likely be only one ingredient in a broader competition for elite offensive tiers.

Ohio State’s position in the national conversation adds weight to that debate. The program is expected to be among the country’s most efficient and difficult-to-defend offenses each season, and preview rankings tend to treat Ohio State as the default benchmark. When a prominent analyst pushes back on a “top-two offense” label, it becomes less about discrediting the duo and more about highlighting how competitive offensive projections are across the sport.

This is also the kind of offseason discussion that can evolve quickly once camps and early fall practices start revealing chemistry, timing, and the day-to-day health of the offense. Without official statistical comparisons tied to this specific claim, it remains an opinion on projection rather than a verdict on what will happen in the regular season.

What to watch next is whether Ohio State’s offensive identity looks like it can sustain high-level efficiency from series to series, not just flash big-play potential. If Sayin’s decision-making and accuracy consistently pair with Smith’s production in routine situations, that would strengthen the case for a true elite offense. If the offense struggles to generate consistent chunk plays or to convert drives without relying on the duo, the analyst’s skepticism could end up reflecting the season’s reality.