ESPN personality and former Colts Punter Pat McAfee refuted rumors that former Ohio State safety Caleb Downs is dealing with any injuries that would affect his NFL draft stock.
On “The Pat McAfee Show” on March 3, McAfee mentioned a rumor surfacing on the internet that Downs was flagged with a potential injury during the week of the NFL combine.
McAfee said he had reached out to “multiple NFL teams” about Downs and that they said that there is “nothing in the medical that would deter them from bringing Caleb Downs in” for the draft.
“There wasn’t one NFL team that we talked to this morning that said anything was wrong, and we talked to multiple,” McAfee said.
McAfee referenced a rumor from a report stating Downs had a partially torn meniscus and a “potentially degenerative ACL.” Based on the information NFL teams shared with McAfee, he believes the report is either not true or not crucial to Downs’ draft stock.
“We do know that even the people that are considered real, if their [expletive] gets enough traffic, it does become a topic of conversation for people around the league, especially if it involves somebody who was deemed a hall of famer the first day they stepped foot on campus in Alabama,” McAfee said.
Downs, who is projected to be a top-10 pick in the upcoming draft, did not participate in any of the drills at the combine. He measured in at 6 feet tall, 206 pounds, with an arm span of 301/4 inches and a hand measurement of 9½ inches.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Pat McAfee debunks Caleb Downs injury rumors ahead of NFL draft
Reporting by Dan Aulbach, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
