Bryson Rodgers Stepping Up As Leader, Playmaker For Buckeyes

As Bryson Rodgers enters his redshirt sophomore season for the Buckeyes, he is not just emerging as a playmaker on offense but also as a leader in a relatively young receiver room.

While the Buckeyes return a pair of starting receivers in junior Carnell Tate and sophomore Jeremiah Smith, there are no senior receivers among the scholarship players. The entire 2022 recruiting class transferred out over the past three years, leaving a void in a number of ways.

Rodgers, Tate, and Brandon Inniss are the elder statesmen as third-year players. They have all done their part to bring the younger receivers along. For Rodgers, that may just be going out to eat, helping them around the facility, or encouraging them to get extra work.

“Simple bonding moments,” he calls it.

It’s not a role Bryson Rodgers is accustomed to, but that’s not going to stop him from doing what the team needs.

“I mean, it’s different for me,” Rodgers said this spring. “I’m really like a ball player type of guy. Not the most outgoing and vocal, but when I talk, I realize that people listen. So just taking more of that type of aspect into my game, just making me more complete as a football player, I’m willing to do so.”

While Rodgers grows in comfort as a leader, he’s already very comfortable as a receiver. He just took part in his third spring as a Buckeye. He knows what to expect and what is asked of every player. Nothing was new, and none of it was too much to handle.

Everything was right in his wheelhouse.

“Extremely comfortable,” he said. “Super confident in my ability to do what I do. Just building that trust with my quarterbacks. That’s pretty much what I came in wanting to do, just let them know that they’ve got a reliable option in number 13 the next time I was on the field.”

Rodgers spent the bulk of his first two years in the slot. That put him and Brandon Inniss behind Emeka Egbuka each of the past two seasons. Now with Egbuka off to the NFL, there is a job opening and snaps available.

In order to increase his ability to help the offense this season, however, Rodgers is not just limiting himself to the slot. Receivers coach and offensive coordinator Brian Hartline always wants his receivers to have a primary position and a secondary position.

Now an upperclassman, Rodgers is comfortable enough to play any of the receiver positions. After posting five receptions for 46 yards last year as a redshirt freshman, more is on the horizon this year.

“The more years you get under your belt, the more experience you get, you start knowing this offense more and more,” Rodgers explained. “Not just your position or what you’re doing, but everybody’s job. What you’re doing, how you’re doing it, why you’re doing it. So, yeah, I’ve been repping outside, Z, X, H, anywhere Coach Hartline needs me to just really be that guy and go make a play.”

The more versatility Rodgers can provide, the more snaps he could see this year. Willingness is the first part of that battle. The second part is having the skill set to make it happen.

“I’m just willing to make plays and show why I’m one of the best receivers in America,” Rodgers said. “So if that’s on the outside, that’s on the inside, whatever Coach Hartline and this team needs me to do to help us win, I’m going to show I’m one of the best receivers in America.”