Ohio State safety Caleb Downs might be the best player in the NFL draft, but he won’t go No. 1 overall. He might not even go in the top five.
The NFL doesn’t value safeties the way they do quarterbacks or edge rushers, or most other positions for that matter.
Only five safeties have been selected in the top five of the NFL draft and none since the Chiefs selected Eric Berry fifth overall in 2010. Jamal Adams, who went sixth overall to the Jets in 2017, was the last safety selected in the top 10.
Downs is so good at what he does that he won’t have to wait long on draft day, but he likely will have to wait longer than he should. As one would expect, Downs said he believes he’s the top player in the draft.
“I feel confident every time I step on the field,” Downs said Thursday. “If I wouldn’t say I walked on the field and thought anybody was better than me, yeah, that’s not true.”
He could join elite company with Eric Turner, Sean Taylor, Kenny Easley, Berry and Rickey Dixon the safeties who were drafted in the top five since 1970.
“At the end of the day, it’s who’s the best defender,” Downs said. “It’s not like really positional value. It’s who affects the game. If you affect the game in a lot of ways, that’s what is most important. That’s really all I can worry about, honestly. I can’t worry about what anybody else says. . . . At the end of the day, my film is what it is. They’re going to make a decision based off of that.”
Downs’ versatility makes him special, as he has the ability to line up at strong safety or the nickel and at linebacker in the sub packages. He is the modern day Darren Woodson, but with better blitzing ability.
“I feel like being able to play multiple positions is what makes people useful, is what makes people special,” Downs said. “So, yeah, being able to play in the box, being able to play in the deep part of the field, being able to play slot, nickel or dime, yeah, I think that makes me unique.”
Downs earned the 2025 Jim Thorpe Award, given to the best defensive back in college football, and became the first true defensive back to finish in the top 10 in Heisman Trophy voting since LSU’s Tyrann Mathieu in 2011. (Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers and Colorado’s Travis Hunter played multiple positions.)
In his three-year career, Downs totaled 257 tackles, 16 tackles for loss and six interceptions.
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