Potentially days away from hearing his name called in the NFL draft , Michael Ayers can laugh now about how he once begged to play cornerback, citing his speed and enjoyment of one-on-one matchups in the secondary.
"It was my favorite position," the 2017 Walnut Ridge graduate said. "We had good corners, though, so I stayed as a high safety."
That is where Ayers was named first-team all-state as a senior and, to some extent, played two seasons at Division II Ashland. But having bulked up from 6 feet 3, 190 pounds as a high school senior — when he overcame a torn meniscus in July to play the entire season — to his current frame of 6-3, 220, Ayers has thrived since moving to inside linebacker in 2021.
His 181 tackles, six sacks and five forced fumbles in that span earned him Great Midwest Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors two seasons ago, overall conference Player of the Year last fall and the attention of NFL scouts. Ayers declared for the draft Dec. 13 and spent much of the winter preparing at a training facility in Colorado.
The three-day draft starts Thursday.
2023 NFL draft coverage: What you need to know about C.J. Stroud, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and the 2023 NFL draft
Want to see where C.J. Stroud will play? Here's how to watch 2023 NFL draft
"It's a waiting game now," Ayers said. "I'm just trying to stay in shape, lifting and running. Once the day comes and you're on a team, you want to hit the ground running."
Ayers would become the 10th Ashland player to enter the NFL and first since tight end Adam Shaheen, a Big Walnut graduate, was drafted in the second round by Chicago in 2017.
Five Division II players were taken in last year's draft. Fayetteville State's Joshua Williams went highest, at 135th to Kansas City in the fourth round.
After redshirting as a true freshman, Ayers had 50 tackles and 2.5 sacks the next two seasons as a "whip" linebacker, essentially a hybrid between an outside linebacker and low safety. But personnel changes in 2020, a season wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic, sent Ayers to inside linebacker.
"He was our eraser on the field," Ashland defensive coordinator Tim Rose said. "He doesn't make mistakes. He knows where he's supposed to be and he has the instinct to go make plays. … You can expose players to a lot of situations but they either have it or they don't in terms of figuring it out on their own. …
"I guess the phrase 'still waters run deep' applies. He's a happy guy, a smart guy, but when you watch him play, work and compete, you see why he is where he is."
Baseball: Former Ohio State, Dublin Scioto pitcher Andrew Magno patiently awaits first MLB call-up
Ayers' father, Steve, worked with several future NFL players during stints as an assistant at Brookhaven and Walnut Ridge dating to 1996 — including onetime OSU linebacker Malik Harrison — but said he didn't necessarily see the same for his son.
Steve Ayers was Walnut Ridge's defensive coordinator from 2014-20 and now is entering his second season in the same role at Reynoldsburg.
"I just knew he was a football player," Steve Ayers said. "As a parent, yeah, you see it, but there have to be so many intangibles. Everything has to fall into line."
Ayers played in the NFL Players Association Collegiate Bowl in January and took part in pro days at Ashland and Toledo in March. CBS Sports draft analyst Emory Hunt suggested in a mock small-college draft earlier this month that Buffalo could be an ideal landing spot.
"Ayers has the ability to play the run, blitz and cover in both man and zone, which makes him a perfect fit for the Bills defense," Hunt wrote.
There might be only one certainty for Ayers during the draft.
"I'm not going to sit down," he said. "I'll be so preoccupied. There's no way I'll be able to sit down and watch the TV. I'll have to be doing something."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Walnut Ridge's Ayers hoping to jump from Division II Ashland to NFL
