Then the Buckeye campaigns. In '24 he set what would be career highs with 7.5 tackles for loss and 6 pass defenses. Last year he had his biggest college takeaway season with 2 interceptions and 2 forced fumbles. Also, he dabbled in punt returns, with 10 returns combined in '23-24. Two of those he returned for touchdowns.
But Downs also gives credit for his confidence, skills and versatility to his impressive family tree. His older brother, Josh, enters his fourth season as a Colts WR. His father, Gary, was the Giants' third-round pick in the '94 draft and a six-season RB. Uncle Dre Bly had an 11-season, two-Pro Bowl career at cornerback, then began his coaching career, which included a stop last year with the Jets as assistant DBs coach.
"My brother, he set the tone for me in a lot of ways. He had a great career in college and that allowed me to believe in myself, to know that I could do it," Downs said. "Then my dad, I grew up around a lot of his old NFL friends. People ask me, like, did you think you weren't going to be able to do it? No. I was around everything I needed to be around. There was never a thought like was I going to be able to do it. It was just like I'll get there at some point."
Downs is almost at that point now. After the Combine and OSU workouts, the draft arrives April 23 in Pittsburgh. No matter whether GM Darren Mougey, HC Aaron Glenn and the Jets snap him up or not, he's a top-10 talent.
And while Downs declined a few times to get into which teams he visited with at the Combine, he did respond to a question about Glenn, saying: "I was excited to meet him, I shook his hand in the hallway. ... He sounded like great people."