The Cincinnati Bengals need to add a ton of help to their defense, but one of the biggest positions of need is at safety.
A player that a ton of NFL fans want their team to add is Ohio State’s Caleb Downs. He came into the NFL Scouting Combine being considered one of the best players in this year’s draft.
Unfortunately, Corey Kinnan from Daft on Draft wrote that Downs came away from the week with some bad news.
“Ending on a bummer here, I was told by an NFC scout that Ohio State all-class safety Caleb Downs had a couple of issues flagged during his medical check,” Kinnan wrote. “Nobody expected him to test this week anyway, so it flew a bit under the radar. However, I was told that Downs was flagged with a partially torn meniscus this week. That is not a serious concern, but also being flagged with a potentially degenerative ACL is. Now, this is not to signify any sort of significant drop for Downs, who likely will return and get a second opinion and a second check. Besides, plenty of NFL players have been flagged with degenerative knees before, but have gone on to have successful NFL careers.”
As Kinan wrote, this isn’t going to be so serious that he should fall too hard. There might be some teams that might move prospects ahead of him now.
Cincinnati and other NFL teams have way more information than we currently have. How bad the tear is, and how bad the ACL degeneration currently is. They’ll be able to make a more informed decision than us.
However, this does make the possibility of Downs being there at No. 10 for the Bengals a little more likely…though it also just became likelier that the Bengals will pass on him. Even without the injury concern, Downs plays at a non-premium position, so there was already a real chance that the Bengals would pass on him for someone at a premium position like cornerback or defensive end.
Even with this news, are you still hoping Caleb Downs lands in Cincinnati?
See More:
