Ohio State just offered another 2018 QB. What does that mean?

Ohio State’s 2018 recruiting class is excellent right now. Per the 247 Sports Composite, it’s the best in the country, with four different five-star commits, and 16 blue-chippers.

One of the jewels of that class is high four-star QB Emory Jones. It’s easy to see why fans would be excited about Jones. He’s the No. 2 dual-threat QB in the country, and would be the highest rated QB recruit of the Urban Meyer era, and one of the best in Ohio State history, period. Basically every major program in the country wanted him, and he’s with the Buckeyes.

At least, for now.

The Franklin, Georgia product has (smartly, IMO) kept his options open, and has taken multiple visits to Alabama. By no means is Jones status as a member of the class of 2018 a lock.

And now Ohio State is hedging their bets, making another 2018 QB offer

According to Steve Wilfong, Ohio State offered 2018 Kentucky commit Jarren Williams.

Okay, who the heck is that?

A really good QB! Williams, also a Peach State product, has offers from plenty of other power programs, like Alabama (where he has visited), Florida State, Florida, LSU, and others. He’s a four-star prospect and ranked as the 8th dual-threat QB in the country. He’s got good size (6-2, 206 pounds), and has enough potential that plenty of programs who have good reps as talent evaluators seem to like him.

Does this mean Emory Jones is gone?

Not necessarily. Jones did visit Ohio State last weekend, (and hey, if you’re going to host some big time recruits, doing it for a massive comeback against Penn State is a pretty good time to do it), and he hasn’t officially opened his commitment.

But Ohio State issuing offers to big time 2018 QBs can reasonably be taken as a sign that at the very least, the Buckeyes are hedging their bets. Given how crowded Ohio State’s QB depth chart is right now, taking two blue-chip 2018 QBs would seem pretty unlikely (although hey, for the right croots, anything is possible). If the Buckeyes are out looking elsewhere, there’s probably a good reason.

But this is recruiting, and things can change all the time in recruiting, especially with QBs. So don’t write anything in stone.

Would losing Jones be a disaster?

Emory Jones is really, really good, and in my humble opinion, it is always better to sign a really, really good QB recruit than say, not signing one. But I don’t think this would be a disaster unless it led to a rash of other decommitments, which I don’t think is likely. The Buckeyes are likely to land another four-star QB if Jones departs, if not Williams, than perhaps another flip candidate. And there’s a lot of depth, at least prospects-wise, in the QB room right now, with Dwayne Haskins, Joe Burrow, and last year’s star QB recruit, Tate Martell. Signing a QB is a good idea every year, but even if Ohio State somehow wiffed on everybody, I don’t think that would be a catastrophe.

Ohio State’s 2018 recruiting class is probably still going to be really, really dang good. It might even be the best in the country. But which QB will be in it? That’s a little less clear now.