Last year, when star players like Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin were carrying OSU’s offense, a lesser-known freshman was quietly taking the snaps at the fullback position. He had never played the position before, but played in 13 games for the Buckeyes. Returning this year, the player is making a case for being the leader in OSU’s experience-lacking tight end room. A former Michigan QB turned analyst concurs with that sentiment.

“Arthur Smith, you look at his history. He utilizes the tight ends a lot in his offense,” two-time All-American UM QB, Jake Butt, said on April 14. “A guy I’m buying stock in that no one’s really going to talk about as much is Nate Roberts, the tight end. Ryan Day, Hartline, and even Sayin would say, ‘Man, we think Nate Roberts has a chance to be really, really special.’ As you mentioned, some of the star power on the outside, Nate Roberts is a guy who can win some of those matchups.”

Nate Roberts was a standout 4-star tight end in OSU’s 2025 class. A multisport athlete at Washington High School in Oklahoma, he excelled in both football and baseball. So, as Nate helped his baseball team win back-to-back Oklahoma 3A state championships in 2022 and 2023, he was also raking in football accolades.

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Nate notched 705 receiving yards in 2022, helping the team to a 15-0 record and the Oklahoma 2A state championship. His 21.4 yards per catch average was particularly impressive. Nate committed to OSU in April 2024, and the reason was obvious.

“I wanted to go to a school that won,” Roberts said. “That’s all I really knew in high school was winning games, so I think Ohio State definitely was the best spot for me if we wanted to win. That’s all we’ve really been doing so far.”

Coming in at Ohio State, Roberts didn’t have lofty expectations. He put his head down, started putting in solid performances in practices, and Ryan Day quickly found a role for him at the fullback position. It wasn’t something Roberts had dreamt of, but it was still a start. Although Nate didn’t manage to light up the box score, he was still reliable, playing 221 snaps in total and spending 127 of those in run blocking. That became the foundation for Roberts’ potential breakthrough in 2026.

“The sky’s the limit,” OSU’s tight ends coach, Keenan Bailey, said before the Cotton Bowl game last season. “I’m going to lean on Nate to be the future of this tight end room. I don’t make any bones about that. When I was recruiting him out of Norman, the plan was always to come in, earn a role, and he’s done it. But going forward, he needs to hold the banner of this tight end room.”

Entering the 2026 season, Ohio State will be without “90 percent” of its production at the tight end position. Ryan Day brought in Hunter Welching (Northwestern) and Mason Williams (Ohio) at the position. In all, Day intended to put Roberts through the 3-man battle for the starting tight end position in the spring practices. But given Roberts’ talent, he has passed the test, displaying immense potential and physicality.

Arthur Smith’s schemes will demand the best from Nate Roberts

When Brian Hartline and Ryan Day called the plays in the 2025 season, fundamentally, they used an 11-personnel scheme. So, OSU had 3 WRs in Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, and Brandon Inniss, while Max Klare was the sole player from the TE position group. Despite that, 2025 was still an evolution phase for the offense, as we also saw 12- and 13-personnel formations when the situation demanded.

Interestingly, they even sprinkled 14 personnel sets at times, as TE deployment reached its highest rate in Day’s OSU era. This year, Arthur Smith is the OC, and he has a fundamentally run-first and play-action passing mentality. Because of that, 12 personnel would be the foundation for Smith’s setups, while we can still see him using a 13-personnel setup when required. That’s the reason OSU is relying heavily on Roberts.

“He’s taken quite a bit of a step up, and it started in the weight room,” Bailey said about Nate Roberts. “[He] was far and away top-ranked when we came out of winter, and that’s why he got the first crack at it when we got to spring. Sometimes we can think of him as a young guy because he’s been here for one year, but his first college rep was fourth and one. We ran behind him and scored a touchdown. He’s played a lot of ball. “No one has higher expectations than he does for himself.”

Arthur Smith’s schemes don’t only demand blocking from his tight ends. He uses motion and pre-snap movement to create D-line conflict and identify coverages. Most importantly, his tight ends are a major receiving threat on short-to-intermediate play-action calls. That’s exactly what Smith did at Pittsburgh: he used TEs like Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith in varied situations.

While his blocking prowess provides a high floor, Roberts’ development as a receiver will determine whether he becomes a foundational piece or the ultimate wild card in Arthur Smith’s new-look offense.