COLUMBUS —It's highly unlikely that Caleb Downs slides in next month's 2026 NFL Draft. A report that surfaced after the NFL Scouting Combine suggested the Ohio State safety has some underlying physical issues made some wonder, however.
Downs pushed back against the rumor that he has "a potentially degenerative ACL" on Wednesday after the Buckeyes' pro day at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
"Nothing," Downs told Steelers Now of what he had to say in response. "They already answered it. Pat McAfee put out a statement about it. That's not what my medical says, so it is what it is. I don't really know who gave him that information, whoever that dude is. But it is what it is. I'm just gonna continue to do me. I can't control what people say."
Downs formally met with the Steelers at the combine, but the NFL Mock Draft Database tabs him as the No. 8 overall player on its big board. It's hard to imagine he'd fall into Pittsburgh's laps without it trading up in the order first.
"Who knows what's real and what isn't? But we do know that even the people that aren't considered real, if their shit generates enough traffic, it does become a topic of conversation for people around the league, especially if it involves somebody who was deemed a Hall of Famer the first day they were on campus in Alabama," McAfee said on "The Pat McAfee Show" earlier this month. "We reached out to the Downs family. The Downs family immediately sent us to a suit, sent a thumbs-up, never gonna do that.
"So then we go to a couple NFL teams and we try to get a little follow-up on what we have heard. Multiple NFL teams have told us, 'There is nothing in the medical that would deter us from bringing Caleb Downs in.'"
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Caleb Downs Responds to Reported Injury Concerns Ahead of 2026 NFL Draft
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