The silver lining of Urban Meyer losing as much talent as anybody in the country was obvious.

Now, he gets to tell recruits about the 2016 draft class, which saw 12 Buckeyes get drafted, all of which were in the first four rounds. That’s a draft record, and something no other program can touch.

But even more than that, there’s something that will appeal to recruits more than just getting drafted.

Money. Lots and lots of money.

No team saw its players roll in the dough like the Buckeyes did last weekend. The school tweeted out a link of just how much that cumulative figure was for their players selected on the first two days:

In the age of capped rookie contracts, that’s a staggering figure. You don’t have to look past the first round to see how rich former Buckeyes instantly became.

Check out how much each first-round Buckeye is projected to make (according to Forbes):

  • Joey Bosa — $25.9 million
  • Ezekiel Elliott — $25 million
  • Eli Apple —$15.2 million
  • Taylor Decker — $11 million
  • Darron Lee — $10.2 million

By comparison, Ole Miss’ three first-rounders are worth a combined $31 million. Ohio State’s first-rounders are worth over $87 million and that’s just half of the Buckeyes drafted in the first three rounds. That’s a number Meyer is going to become familiar with. Lee wasn’t even a four-star recruit and he left Ohio State after three seasons. Now, he’ll be an eight-figure guy in the NFL.

It’s interesting that some have likened Meyer’s style to that of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari. It isn’t quite one-and-done, but four of those five first-rounders were only in Columbus for the minimum of three years. They have a national title and a whole lot of money under their belts now.

A draft like Ohio State’s is felt for years in the recruiting world. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the Buckeyes already have a stranglehold on the No. 1 spot in the 247sports 2017 recruiting class rankings.

Just in case Meyer didn’t have enough ammo, he now has the best recruiting tool imaginable in his holster.