{"id":107935,"date":"2025-08-31T02:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T02:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107935\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T02:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T02:57:09","slug":"nfl-gms-stunned-by-caleb-downs-performance-and-the-comps-are-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107935\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL GMs stunned by Caleb Downs performance (and the comps are wild)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6b\">The college football season just got underway, which means we&#8217;re months away from even the start of NFL Draft excitement, but some impressive scouting reports are already coming out about Ohio State safety Caleb Downs.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">One anonymous quote, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Schultz_Report\/status\/1961877741894012995\" rel=\"nofollow\">per NFL reporter Jordan Schultz<\/a>, has a sizzling comparison to two former NFL legends: &#8220;There&#8217;s some Earl Thomas and Eric Berry to him. Just a special, special player.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">Schultz posted his survey of NFL general managers who were on hand to watch the season-opening showdown between two contenders for the national title, Ohio State and Texas. The Longhorns ended up falling to the Buckeyes by a final score of 14-7, and Downs was part of a stifling defensive performance for OSU.<\/p>\n<p>OSU star safety Caleb Downs is getting all the right pro comparisons.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">That Downs would profile as a mix of Thomas and Berry is about as high a compliment as a safety can receive. Thomas was a semi-finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame this past year in his first year of eligibility. The seven-time Pro Bowler is a member of the NFL&#8217;s 2010s All-Decades team and was a first-round pick at No. 14 overall himself.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6q\"><a href=\"https:\/\/arrowheadaddict.com\/posts\/why-eric-berry-deserves-hall-of-fame-chiefs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Berry needs no introduction as a Chiefs defensive legend<\/a>. The former Tennessee star was considered as pro-ready as a college player can be for the NFL, which is why former Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli selected him at No, 5 overall in the 2009 NFL Draft\u2014setting a new mark for the highest a safety has ever been selected.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">While Berry struggled to stay healthy through his NFL career, and even lost a season due to a battle with Hodgkins lymphoma, he still earned three first-team All-Pro nods and went to five Pro Bowls. His return from cancer earned him Comeback Player of the Year in 2015 and is one of the NFL&#8217;s most heartening stories ever.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6w\">Downs was an All-American safety as a sophomore one year ago for the Buckeyes after transferring from Alabama the previous season. Downs had 6 pass deflections, 8 tackles for loss, and 2 interceptions in &#8217;24. Downs had 5 total tackles on Saturday against the Longhorns. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6z\">Interestingly enough, two of Dane Brugler&#8217;s top five prospects on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6549329\/2025\/08\/21\/nfl-draft-2026-rankings-arch-manning-caleb-downs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his 2026 big board<\/a> for next year&#8217;s draft are Downs and Texas quarterback Arch Manning, two of the prime stars on display in Saturday&#8217;s matchup. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The college football season just got underway, which means we&#8217;re months away from even the start of NFL&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-107935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}