Former Buckeye Star Says Jeremiah Smith is "Right There" Compared to Current NFL Stars

Caleb Downs has played for three of the biggest football brands in the world. Along the way, he has played against all of the best wide receivers this sport has to offer.

He played against Isaiah Bond and Jermaine Burton at Alabama, Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, and Emeka Egbuka at Ohio State, before competing with CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens with the Cowboys.

It's quite the list of adversaries that he has gone up against, but it definitely helped him become one of the best safeties in the sport.

On Friday, he was asked on The Pivot Podcast how far off Jeremiah Smith is from Lamb and Pickens specifically. With a smile, Downs waxed poetic about all three of them.

He said, "He's right there... He is different, though. (George Pickens) Ball skills (are) crazy, Ceedee, as a route runner and as an all-around football player, but Jeremiah (is) freakishly athletic. Match that with a really good ball player too, it's different."

No surprise here, everyone knows that Smith is different.

However, sometimes it is tough to evaluate how close or far away a player is from the level he needs to be at in the NFL. The best in the NFL are miles ahead of the best at the college level, but this might be one of those rare cases where the separation isn't all that far.

The one person who could make that honest evaluation is Downs. He has had to guard all three of those players in one-on-one situations and has certainly had his wins against them all.

Smith is truly a one-of-one player and the type of guy that we may never see again at any level of the sport. 

Going into the final year of his college career, he has the ability to carry the Buckeyes wherever they want to go next year. If he stays healthy, he is going to be the unquestioned best player in the country from the very first snap to the very last one of the year.

The truth is that it has been that way since about the fifth or sixth game of his career back in 2024. He has been special from the start, and now he is looking to put the cherry on top of his college career.

Once he does that and turns his attention to the NFL, he is going to take that league by storm just the same.