Ohio State football spring practice notes: What’s up with Mitchell Melton, Josh Proctor and Jaxon Smith-Njigba?

Ohio State linebacker Mitchell Melton lines up for a drill during spring practice in March 2021.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State football returned to practice Tuesday morning after a week off for Spring Break.

What we saw during three periods open to the media for practice No. 3 in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. Reporters will meet with Ryan Day after practice.

Defense

• Mitchell Melton remained with the defensive line group, which is the same group we saw him working with two weeks earlier at the first practice. Presumably he will be in line for the Leo/Jack hybrid stand-up pass rusher position, though we have yet to see that in action in the small windows. The defense rotated through drill stations during today’s open periods with no scrimmaging.

• Cade Stover continued to wear a white No. 16 jersey and work with the defense.

• Cameron Brown was more involved today than he had been two weeks ago. He played through pain a lot last season. Veterans are often eased back into the mix for injury reasons so no surprise there.

• Josh Proctor and Jaylen Johnson were both absent from the safety group. Again, not a major surprise given their injury histories, but something to monitor as the spring progresses. Knowles said Proctor’s involvement would increase after the break.

• Defensive ends Zach Harrison and Javontae Jean-Baptiste, who had limited involvement two weeks ago, both appeared to be full go for practice. Looked like defensive end Tyler Friday, who was listed as unavailable for the spring, was out there for initial warm-ups.

Offense

• Same first-string offensive line as we saw two weeks ago: LT Paris Johnson Jr., LG Matt Jones, C Luke Wypler, RG Donovan Jackson, RT Dawand Jones.

• In a quarterback-tight end period, Joe Royer and Gee Scott were working with C.J. Stroud. Mitch Rossi, who was listed as unavailable for the spring, worked on the side.

• TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams took handoffs from stroud, with Evan Pryor lining up with Kyle McCord.

• The receivers worked on some jet sweep reps with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Emeka Egbuka and Marvin Harrison Jr. in that order.

• In the special teams rep, freshman receivers Caleb Burton and Kyion Grayes came off the edges on the punt block unit.

• Stroud wore a new kind of Riddell helmet for practice, with a visor installed directly into the shell.

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