The college football always hits that weird quiet stretch in February and March. Regardless, the content machine never sleeps, and someone’s got to print something. And who better to make a victim of than Ohio State and Caleb Downs? The star safety reportedly suffered a torn MCL at the Combine, and analysts are already downplaying his stock. According to Ohio State insiders, this is just another March for them.

“Looking at this from a more broad perspective, this does fit in with the trend of Ohio State players getting their stock gone after in rather obscure ways, [and] in not just recent seasons,” insider George Eisner said on the Eleven Dubcast. “I think, over multiple draft cycles now…going back as far as 2006 or 2007.”

According to Eisner, players from Ohio State often get strange criticism during the NFL draft process. This trend really kicked off back in 2007 with Troy Smith. Despite his winning the Heisman in the 2006 season, the combine critics and analysts were hell-bent and obsessed over his height (6’0). They even went as far as saying that he might be a bit too small to make a living in the NFL.

Then you have the weirdly personal critiques. Take Eli Apple, for example. Instead of just talking about his coverage skills, people actually brought up his mom’s social media presence as a distraction and even joked about him not knowing how to cook. It felt less like scouting and more like looking for reasons to nitpick a Buckeye.

Another example is C. J. Stroud and the S2 Cognition test controversy before the draft. He was the lowest-scoring QB prospect in this test in the 2023 draft. The bad rap that surrounded him is the same that now surrounds Caleb Downs and Carnell Tate.

“Every year, you’re always going to get these stories that come out. It’s a symptom of the fact that you have over three months between the end of a college football season and the NFL draft that people need things to talk about. Because of that, random rumors or criticisms about players start showing up.

Hope also said that OSU players get talked about more simply because they come from one of the biggest programs in college football. The Ohio State standard and the number of players they send to the draft automatically put them under the spotlight. Buckeye Nation can still hope to see their stars getting drafted as they deserve. But when it comes to Downs, the picture becomes a little tricky.

What could Caleb Downs now be expecting in the draft?

During the physicals in Indianapolis, reports leaked that Downs had partially torn his meniscus. Additionally, he was also suspected of dealing with a degenerative ACL.  In the NFL world, that’s basically code for ‘his knees might have a shorter shelf life than we’d like.’ Truth be told, teams are a bit skeptical. It scares teams into thinking they might only get four or five elite years out of him. We have seen many great talents get their careers robbed because of ACL and other knee injuries.

Even with these scary-sounding medical labels, we can’t forget who Caleb Downs is. The man walked onto a Nick Saban-led Alabama team as a true freshman. Then he moved to Ohio State and doubled down there by helping them win their first natty since 2016. Scouts are obsessed with him because he plays the game like he’s already been in the league for five years. Some might even argue that eight years of Caleb Downs is better than twelve years of a regular safety.

Because of all this back-and-forth, his draft stock is currently on a wild roller-coaster ride. Before the medical news leaked, he was a lock for the Top 5 or 7. He was strongly expected to go to the Giants or the Commanders. Now, the draft tea suggests he might slide just a little bit, maybe into the 10-15 range. However, the injury doesn’t take away from the fact that Downs is a solid player who can shine in the defense of whichever team picks him. It’s basically turned into a game of ‘Medical Chicken’ to see who is brave enough to pull the trigger.