Could Caleb Downs Be the Next Harrison Smith for Daronte Jones?

The Washington Commanders had the NFL’s worst defense in 2025, so drafting a versatile safety like Ohio State Buckeyes star Caleb Downs is the kind of no-brainer move many fans hope the team makes in April.

However, there are several other players, including two of Downs’s Buckeyes teammates, who could also fit that description. Simply put, the Commanders have a lot of holes to fill on that side of the ball.

While the process of filling those holes is about to begin for Washington general manager Adam Peters, by the time April arrives to bring the NFL Draft, it's hard to believe there still wouldn’t be at least some justification that Downs would be the right man at No. 7, if he is still available.

In his first mock draft for the NFL’s in-house media site, Gennaro Filice slotted Downs in at that spot to the Commanders, saying, “Dan Quinn’s defense just bottomed out, ranking 27th in points allowed and dead last in total D. The unit has needs on all three levels, but this safety can also provide a necessary culture boost, as a high-IQ alpha who just captained Ohio State’s top-ranked defense. Downs might lack the raw physical traits to blow up the NFL Scouting Combine, but he offers the mature, versatile game to immediately thrive in today’s multiple-defense league.”

Ohio State Buckeyes safety Caleb Downs (2) reacts to a tackle during the second half of the NCAA football game against the Ohio Bobcats at Ohio Stadium on Sept. 13, 2025. Ohio State won 37-9. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

More than just an athlete

What Filice is pointing to is the difference between elite ballers and elite athletes, though some will surely argue that Downs is both.

The safety didn’t just start and lead at Ohio State; he also started games for the Alabama Crimson Tide program, which is widely thought of as one of the best in the nation, before former head coach Nick Saban retired to broadcasting.

Not only has Downs shown plenty of physical ability to play at the highest level, but his IQ is also elite for his experience.

The Harrison Smith connection

If there is a knock on Downs, it will be that he isn’t the most physically imposing or the most athletically gifted player on the board. That hasn’t stopped those who envision what Daronte Jones’s defense might look like in his first year with the Commanders from imagining Downs filling the Harrison Smith role.

In fact, as the Minnesota Vikings brace for Smith’s retirement, there are plenty who daydream about some avenue for the team to draft Downs as his replacement, despite the team sitting 10 or so picks too late in the first round to do so.

Bucking draft history

Of course, also working against Downs is the trend of safeties not being selected in the top 10 of NFL Drafts. Very rarely is a player at his position taken that high, but it isn’t unheard of, either.

If Peters does the requisite work in free agency, beginning about three weeks from now, then perhaps Washington will be in a position to take a player like Downs in the top 10. And if Jones sees him as the answer to his safety group, then I expect Peters will have no issues answering questions about taking a player at a position rarely drafted so highly, because he’s the right man at the right spot.

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