“Best Decision Ever”: Steelers DE Jack Sawyer Reflects on His Return to Ohio State for His Senior Year

Jack Sawyer was a key figure in the Ohio State Buckeyes’ 2024 National Championship run. The edge rusher recorded 9.0 sacks as a senior, after totaling just 14.0 combined in his first three years in Columbus. One of those nine stood out above the rest, though: an 83-yard sack-strip-scoop-and-score in the College Football Playoff semifinals, which proved to be a turning point in the Buckeyes’ 28-14 win over Texas.

However, he almost didn’t even come back for his senior year at Ohio State. While Sawyer didn’t play much his first two years, he got the starting job as a junior, and he came on strong to finish that season, racking up 5.0 of his 6.5 sacks in the final three games of the season.

After that strong run, Sawyer was being told that he could declare for the 2024 NFL Draft and reasonably be expected to get chosen at some point during the seven-round event.

However, the relationships Sawyer’d built at Ohio State with both the staff and his teammates, and the fact that the Buckeyes had come up just short in his previous three years, made it an “easy decision” to run it back one last time, as he told Ben Roethlisberger on his Channel Seven YouTube show.

“And being so close with Coach Day and the staff and Coach Johnson, and the rest of the guys in the facility, and being from Ohio, I really wanted to bring a championship back to Columbus. And for me, I loved those guys so much that it was an easy decision. I wanted to come back, and I had one more opportunity.”

Sawyer also talked about how the possible regret he’d have felt if he’d left. To him, it wasn’t worth that possibility, and, being from Ohio as he said, it made sense to try and bring some glory back to his home state before heading to the pros.

“If I didn’t come back, would I have regretted it? Obviously being able to go back and do what we wanted to do and win a National Championship, in hindsight it was the best decision ever. During that time… I knew that I wanted to come back, and I had a lot of people telling me I should go and get my journey started at the next level. It wouldn’t felt right leaving.”

Not only did Jack Sawyer help lead the Buckeyes to their first National Championship since 2014, but he also helped boost his own draft stock in the process. He increased his sack numbers, showed he can play the run with 11 tackles for loss, and wreaked havoc with a Big Ten-leading three forced fumbles on the year.

Sawyer played off the left almost exclusively in 2024, but he might have to mix it up after being drafted in the fourth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Sawyer will be working behind All-World edge T.J. Watt, who also comes off the left. Alex Highsmith, who has 33.5 sacks over the last four years, will also be in the mix.

If Sawyer is lucky, he will work into a rotation with Watt and Highsmith. Worst case scenario, he’ll simply serve as the backup to their two proven pass-rushers, only coming in to spell one of them, or in the case of injury. Whatever happens in 2025, with Pittsburgh’s rich history of producing pass rushers, Sawyer definitely landed in the right place.