Mike Francesa\u2019s podcast<\/a> that he is a “big fan, big fan” of Downs.<\/p>\n“We favor Hall of Fame safeties, so if we have a chance to draft a potential future Hall of Fame safety in Caleb Downs, that would be just fine with me,” Harbaugh told Francesa. “We’ll take the best player. When you draft that high, you take the best player. It’s not a need pick; it’s a best player pick because you’re going for the guy that’s going to be that kind of a player. You’re talking about a player that you would like to see someday wearing a gold jacket if possible. That’s what the goal is with that pick.”<\/p>\n
Downs was asked about hearing the praise from the Giants’ new head coach.<\/p>\n
“It’s an honor, honestly,” Downs said. “He’s a legend of the game, and it would be an honor to meet him whenever I do. So, that’ll be great. I’m looking forward to meeting him.”<\/p>\n
The 6-foot, 205-pound Downs is No. 9 on Daniel Jeremiah’s top 50 prospect list after the Buckeye won the Jim Thorpe Award and the Lott IMPACT Trophy in his final collegiate season.<\/p>\n
“Downs is a versatile safety prospect with outstanding instincts and intangibles,” Jeremiah wrote in his scouting report. “He moved around in Ohio State’s scheme but primarily lined up underneath as a nickel, strong safety or nickel ‘backer. In the passing game, he is a smooth mover and utilizes his eyes\/instincts to close and limit windows. He’s physical and has enough speed to mirror tight ends in man coverage. He didn’t get challenged much at the college level, which limited his ball production, though he did snag a pair of interceptions in each of his three seasons. He is an outstanding blitzer, showing timing and feel. He excels against the run. He takes proper angles, attacks ball-carriers and is a dependable tackler. He handles most of the communication for the defense and the staff raves about his intelligence and leadership. Overall, Downs lacks “wow” traits, but he’s a plug-and-play starter who makes others better around him.”<\/p>\n
Hesitant to leave anyone out, Downs answered the typical combine question of listing his favorite current NFL players at his position.<\/p>\n
“Brian Branch, I like his game a lot,” he said. “Kyle [Hamilton]. I love how Budda [Baker] plays, the intensity he plays with. Kevin Byard, his film this year was crazy. I’m going to leave somebody out, honestly. There’s no right answer. I’m going to go Derwin [James] right now, though.”<\/p>\n
But what really excites Downs is deeper in the archives.<\/p>\n
“I love watching the old heads, honestly,” Downs said. “Guys like Troy Polamalu, Ed Reed, that impacted the game in a lot of ways. Even guys like Bob Sanders, who had just crazy years.”<\/p>\n
While they reminisce about Reed’s heyday, Harbaugh and Downs can also bond over their respective football families.<\/p>\n
His brother, Josh Downs, was a two-time All-ACC receiver at N.C. State and drafted in the third round by the Colts in 2023. Their father, Gary Downs, was a running back drafted in the third round by none other than the Giants in 1994.<\/p>\n
“My brother set the tone for me in a lot of ways,” Caleb Downs said. “He had a great career in college, and that allowed me to believe in myself knowing that I could do it. Then my dad, I grew up around a lot of his old NFL friends, so it always felt like \u2013 people would always ask like, ‘Did you ever think you weren’t going to be able to do it? No.’ I was around everything that I needed to be around, and it never was a thought like, ‘Am I going to be able to do it?’ It was just like, ‘I’ll get there at some point.'”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Harbaugh’s teams have picked in the single digits just once with him as head coach. The Giants,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[108986,7,519,347,1917,56,2321,2469,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-778407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-2026-nfl-combine","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-homepage","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-giants","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkgiants","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116139035800950932","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}