{"id":399415,"date":"2026-01-08T09:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399415\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T09:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:11:08","slug":"nfl-draft-decision-could-impact-commanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399415\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL draft decision could impact Commanders"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Commanders<\/a> hold the No. 7 overall pick<\/a> in the 2026 NFL Draft. They could’ve been as high as the fifth overall pick, but defeated the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Commanders<\/a> could look in a number of directions in April’s draft. You can cross quarterback off the list. You can probably take offensive line off the list, too. However, everything else is on the table.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a major NFL draft decision was made when Ohio State junior safety Caleb Downs announced his intention to enter the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old Downs began his career at Alabama before transferring to Ohio State, where he played the last two seasons. Downs is a former SEC Freshman of the Year and a two-time All-American. He’s also a national champion.<\/p>\n

Downs is a phenomenal player. While there are questions about how high you should draft a safety, you throw all of those concerns out the window with Downs. He does everything. Downs has the athleticism of a corner, the power of a linebacker and recognizes and understands route concepts. He’s a Day 1 plug-and-play starter at safety.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Safeties are often one-dimensional. Not Downs. He can cover. He can hit. He’s a great leader and communicator. You could make the case that Downs is the best overall talent in the 2026 draft, and few would argue.<\/p>\n

If Downs is on the board at No. 7 when Washington picks, it would be a terrific pick. The Commanders need safety help. Could you imagine Downs in the secondary? He would immediately transform a struggling unit.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Washington Commanders: Ohio State S Caleb Downs declares for NFL draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Commanders hold the No. 7 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. They could’ve been as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[17076,64,63,133465,593,3373,1260,85,1272],"class_list":["post-399415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-caleb-downs","tag-nfl","tag-ohio-state","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-sports","tag-washington-commanders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399415","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=399415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}