Of all 11 Buckeyes drafted this past season, the popular consensus and common ball knowledge is that the Dallas Cowboys’ Caleb Downs will be missed the most during the Buckeyes’ upcoming season. After all, he is arguably one of the best safeties to ever wear the scarlet and gray, if not the best. Yet, despite losing such an asset, one Buckeye DB believes Earl Little Jr., the player Downs helped bring to Columbus, can fill much of that void.

“Earl Little Jr.’s probably gonna remind y’all a lot of Caleb, honestly,” Brandon Inniss told 11 Warriors. “The way he plays, flying downhill, making plays all over the field, just play after play after play, you see No. 1 on film, it’s like ‘Dang, he made that play?’

Earl Little Jr. might be Caleb Downs’ final gift to Ohio State. Before leaving for the Cowboys as a first-round pick, Downs helped recruit his former Alabama teammate to Columbus and gave the Buckeyes a proven option to help fill the massive hole he left in the secondary. And Downs wasn’t just vouching for some random portal target. He and Little already had history.

Downs and Little go back to Alabama in 2023, when they shared Nick Saban’s secondary. Downs broke out immediately as a true freshman with 107 tackles, two picks and four pass breakups, and Little had a front-row seat to it. That history made Downs’ later endorsement matter. He already knew Little’s game, so when Little hit the portal, Downs wasn’t selling Ohio State on a stranger. He was backing a former teammate he had seen up close.

Now Inniss says Little looks like Downs on film, flying downhill and making plays everywhere.

“In terms of unknowns, when you lose guys like Caleb (Downs), like Kayden McDonald, Arvell Reese, and even Sonny (Styles) … you lose that leadership of having some older bodies there. So, we had to go into the portal and replace some of that experience,” Ryan Day said at the Big Ten Media Days. “Not ideal, quite honestly, but we worked hard to do some research to figure out who would be the right fit in those areas. And Caleb actually gave us a lot of feedback on James Smith, Qua Russaw, and Earl Little, who was … at Alabama his freshman year with Caleb.”

Although Ryan Day has said time and time again that it’s borderline impossible to replace Caleb Downs, given what he has done for the Buckeyes in just 2 years, Earl Little Jr. is no slouch. And Brandon Inniss knows that better than anybody in the country.

Downs knew it too. He didn’t just vouch for Little to Ohio State; he also vouched for Ohio State to Little. When Little was weighing Columbus, Downs praised Matt Patricia and Matt Guerrieri, telling him, “Those two guys love ball, they’re all about ball, and they’re great teachers.”

And Inniss has an even longer history with Little. Inniss and Little go back to American Heritage in South Florida, where Inniss was a five-star receiver, and Little was an elite defensive back. They saw each other every day in practice, and Little said at the time that American Heritage’s players “feed off each other” and “play as one,” which fits the years he and Inniss spent pushing each other in practice.

That history is why Inniss’ opinion carries weight now. He has been lined up across from Little since high school, long before Ohio State ever put No. 1 on its practice film.

And that’s not it. Analysts are buying it, too. One Buckeyes analyst said Little and Terry Moore could end up looking like “what a coup” for Ohio State, and that the Buckeyes may have enough pieces in the secondary to collectively replace Downs.

And that is where the Caleb Downs comparison starts to make sense.

The Traits Little Shares With Downs

Much like Downs, Little isn’t a one-dimensional player. They both play football with the exact same aggressive energy. Both are known for flying downhill at top speed the second the ball is snapped to blow up plays and deliver hard hits. One of the traits they share is guessing what the offense is doing. Plus, they can do a little bit of everything on defense and are asked to do so.

However, the main difference is their size and how they move. Caleb is built thicker and stronger, like a mini-linebacker who is perfect for stopping the run. Earl is a bit leaner and quicker because he used to play cornerback. Those corner skills should make Earl a little better at catching interceptions and playing man coverage, as well as zone coverage.

If Earl manages to stay healthy all through the season, he could even perhaps match Downs’ production, or come very close to matching it.

Little Jr. transferred to Columbus with an impressive resume after spending time at both Alabama and Florida State. In his last season with the Seminoles, he racked up 76 tackles and forced two fumbles. He also ranked fourth in the ACC with four interceptions.

And the expectations have only climbed since then. Phil Steele put Little on his first-team All-Big Ten squad and fourth-team All-America team, while Athlon had him second-team All-Big Ten. One projection even has him around 60-plus tackles and three to five interceptions in 2026, which would put him right in the All-American conversation.

Not only Inniss, but even the national media is buying Little Jr.’s stock. The Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame just named Little Jr. to the 2026 Paycom Jim Thorpe Award Preseason Watch List, the very same trophy that Downs secured in his last season. College football’s best athlete Jeremiah Smith literally said, “He is going to be very special for us, that’s all I can say.”

So when Inniss says the transfer Downs helped bring to Columbus will remind Buckeye fans of No. 2, there is already plenty of evidence behind it. Now Buckeye fans get to see whether Downs really did help hand Ohio State the guy who can soften the blow of losing him.