Ohio State Insider Praise Surfaces On Bengals Draft Target Caleb Downs

CINCINNATI — Bengals fans have their eyes on Ohio State safety Caleb Downs in the 2026 NFL Draft and Dan Hoard is noticing.

The team's play-by-play voice chatted with a few college color commentators on the Bengals Booth Podcast about the stars they've covered over the past few years. He talked with Ohio State's Jim Lachey about Downs.

Lachey was an All American and All Big Ten offensive lineman for Ohio State who led the Buckeyes to the conference championship and the Rose Bowl in his senior season. He played 11 seasons in the NFL starting in 1985 and was an All-Pro a record 9 times during his 11 year career. He had plenty of high praise for the a player widely considered the best safety in the draft and a top-10 talent.

"Very mature athlete," Lachey told Hoard. "Does what he has to do off the field, zero issues. He's a leader of the team. He was a leader from the first day that he got here. And then you look at production right at Alabama, he had 100 tackles his freshman year. Came here to Ohio State, you know, ended up with 257 tackles for his career. 149 at Ohio State just was an all-purpose type player.

"Kind of teased him about not getting enough interceptions. He had four interceptions here, six in his career. He's a guy that was dependable didn't have any injury problems, very durable athlete. But off the field zero issues with this guy, just a great person, a good guy, good family guy. And comes from a good family of athletes."

Downs can do it all at every level of the field as a quick learner and avid leader.

"Picked up everything in a hurry. And not only picked it up, but, you know, got everybody else coached up and where they needed to be. So just one of those guys that you didn't have to worry about that position. And it's so important to have veteran type guys in that secondary that understand what they need to do, understand what really everybody needs to do. And then you go out and you watch him play, right? Very good in coverage, very good in run support.

"In the national championship year 2024, where they had him playing a little bit close to the line of scrimmage, almost kind of backing up the linebackers near the line of scrimmage to see him recognize the offense, what they're doing, the hole where the backs getting the ball and then knife in there to get through blockers was impressive to see. A sure tackler, a guy that doesn't miss tackles and also has an ability to play on special teams. I think everybody remembers his big punt return against Indiana in 2024 that helped kind of turn that ball game and get the momentum of Ohio State here behind him."

Check out the full conversation about Downs below:

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