Giants Nation Show (Giants Podcast)
Should the Giants Draft Caleb Downs + Safety Preview | 143
13 Apr 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Everybody look at your hands We can dance, we can dance Everybody's taking the chance
Welcome to the Giants Nation.
Chapter 2: Who is Caleb Downs and why is he a top safety prospect?
I'm your host, Bobby Skinner, here with my co-host, the football grump. And we got our safety draft preview hashtag, or hashtag, slash should the Giants draft Caleb Downs. I'm excited to talk about Caleb Downs. Grump, we're, you know, people are listening to this. Two weeks from now, you'll be listening to our full draft recap with all the six round picks, you know, recapping round one and two.
And maybe they did a little trade down on our thoughts on that. I'm excited for it, Grump. It really feels like we're getting there.
We are getting there, man. I had that moment this morning where I looked at the calendar and I realized that the draft is literally next week. So this is my second to last Sunday before the draft is over. So I went to the butcher shop and got a bunch of stuff for grilling for when our schedules get markedly less busy in just a couple of weeks. So really, really exciting.
We have the draft quite literally next Thursday. It's right around the corner for us. It is exciting.
Right around the corner. So this is our last week of full draft previews. So we're going to get into all of it. First, this episode was brought to you by a special person. We got Casey Alston. And you're like, oh, Alston? He's got all the members this week? Nope, actually one more. We got Matthew Loizo.
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Chapter 3: What are the strengths and weaknesses of Dillon Thieneman?
Loizo? Lizo? Not a bozo. Loizo. Grump, who are these special people?
These bozos went to Patreon.com slash Giants Nation and signed up for one of the two tiers that are available. They receive stickers in the mail from Bobby. They also get entered automatically into monthly free t-shirt raffles.
Chapter 4: How does Bud Clark compare to other safety prospects?
Also get a copy of Jordan Ronan's book that's being raffled off. They get access to hang out during live recordings of episodes such as this one, like right now. And they also get access to weekly game tape breakdowns that you do during the season. But most importantly, they are the lifeblood of this stream, and they were glad that they did.
They are glad they did. So let's get into the safety preview. Let's not, you know, let's not beat around the bush. And that's going to...
Chapter 5: What makes Kamari Ramsey a notable safety in the draft?
Let's just start with Caleb Downs and we'll let the conversation go. Because I do want to spend a good amount of time on Caleb Downs. Caleb Downs, safe down at Ohio State. Six foot, 206 pounds.
Chapter 6: What should we know about Michael Taaffe's performance at Texas?
Number nine on the consensus board. Number one for the safety spot. 21 years old. I mean... This is a guy, Grump, that we and you watched in our way-too-early draft preview last year and was extremely excited about.
Chapter 7: What are the standout qualities of Jakobe Thomas from Miami?
I'm like, wow, I'm not disappointed in this guy at all. But you're like, ah, you know what? They did sign Javon Holland, Tyler Newman year two. We're going to talk about this guy, but I don't really see the Giants moving off of that and drafting that here.
Chapter 8: How does Deshon Singleton's profile fit into the safety class?
Year comes later, and it's like, all right, Caleb Downs. Did he live up to the hype in his next year? Absolutely did at Ohio State, right? You know, spent one year with Nick Saban as a true freshman starting the two years at Ohio State. This guy is awesome to me. He's versatile. I think he's great in every spot that you'd put him for the safety position. He's an effortless mover.
Good speed, better burst, great change of direction. He plays down towards the line of scrimmage a lot, and I feel like that's the thing people ding him on. But when you see him actually play single high post-safety, he's great at that too.
If you said he's your single high safety 100% of the time, he would be great at that, and he's got better film of doing that than some of the guys in this class. I think he's the best overall player in the NFL draft group.
I think Caleb Downs has suffered from being one of the most overthought players because it's such a dumb, easy analysis. I don't say that lightly, right? Because I do think that there's, you know, I don't know if there is an infinite amount of analysis you can do or an end point in how much work you can do, but I have not found a whole lot of negative with him.
I mean, five-star recruit coming out of high school, top-rated safety in 2023, All-America Bowl. You know what I mean? True freshman at Alabama. played for, here's the other thing too. No injuries, NFL bloodlines, no injuries over the course of three seasons, all of which were very, very long college seasons, 14 games to Alabama, 16 games as a national champion with Ohio state in 2024.
And then again, I think 16 games for Iowa state this year, right? So, I mean, he's used to playing really, really long seasons, basically NFL seasons is an under talked about point with college players is they typically don't play, uh, the same length of seasons. And it's, it's, it is something that they have to get used to at the next level.
I don't think there's anything that Caleb downs has to get used to for the next level. He already understands the game at an advanced level, and you can see it in the way he moves and reacts to things. Everything is so smooth and effortless with him. And he reacts so quickly to things. He anticipates things really, really well.
I think that this is already a pro level player at the, like as a starter at the safety and the arrow is still pointing up for him.
Yeah, I actually went and peeked at some of his freshman Alabama tape, and I'm like, man, no kidding, Nick Saban started this guy as a true freshman. I mean, he just belonged right away for them. You know, watched him against Georgia in that SEC championship, and him, you know, cover Brock Bowers. and do a good job doing it.
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