Imagine six active NFL players coming from the same 9.74 square-mile patch of land.

Welcome to Pickerington, Ohio, population 20,000, a Columbus suburb locals affectionately call "Picktown." Northwestern safety Godwin Igwebuike will become that sixth active NFL player when he is selected in the 2018 NFL Draft, less than a decade after Ryan Manalac became the first Pickerington native to play in a regular-season NFL game.

How did a small, rural town with a population of 5,000 when a new high school was built in 1991 transform into a football-frenzied hotspot with two powerhouse high schools so fast? It's a full-scale competition that runs from the youth level to the NFL. This is the blueprint for a modern football factory, and those six active players are proof the Pickerington process works.

The Pickerington Central Tigers supplied Taco Charlton (Cowboys), Roger Lewis Jr. (Giants) and Brian Peters (Texans). The Pickerington North Panthers produced Jake Butt (Broncos), Pat Elflein (Vikings) and Igwebuike.

There will be more NFL players soon. Central and North combined to send 23 players in last year's senior class to all levels of college football in 2018, and more four-star high school talent is moving up fast.

In 2017, Central quarterback Demeatric Crenshaw rushed for a state championship game-record six touchdowns in a 56-28 victory against Mentor. That gave Central its first ever state title — at Division I, no less, the highest level of Ohio high school football. Crenshaw is one of the top dual-threats in the state heading into his junior year.

Then there's 15-year-old North defensive end Jack Sawyer, who has scholarship offers from multiple Big Ten schools, including Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Michigan State. He was one of the best players in the area as a freshman in 2017.

That might seem like a lot of hype for someone not old enough to get his driver's license, but Sawyer can get an ego check in his own house. Sawyer's mother Michelle was a basketball star at Pickerington High School; her buzzer-beater in the 1990 girls basketball state semifinal is still part of the city's lore. She now teaches at Pickerington North. Sawyer's father, Lyle, is from Columbus and stays with his son through the early recruiting process, which amped up when Ohio State coach Urban Meyer extended a scholarship offer.

That upbringing shines through in interviews. Sawyer mentions his grades repeatedly before even touching on football or basketball. For a 6-5, 200-pound kid who hasn't filled out his frame, Sawyer doesn't shy away from lofty goals. He wants to be the best high school player in Ohio — the country, even — and that does not come from an insincere place.

"The coaches push us each and every day," Sawyer said. "They get us ready to talk to college coaches. My parents, my Mom and Dad, always have tried to make me a humble kid and not some dude who is going to brag."

That begins to explain how this NFL wave started. Audrey Hasson, a sports reporter and anchor for the NBC affiliate in Columbus, grew up in Pickerington. She remembers a time when Ohio State Route 256 wasn't crammed with restaurants, businesses and stop-and-start traffic. She played basketball and softball at the original Pickerington High School.

"It was a farm town with a high school in the middle of a cornfield," she said. "We knew we were athletic kids. But to me, I would never have imagined this type of talent coming out of here year after year. It's about great teachers, great coaches and a great school system with a lot of great families. It starts there."