{"id":603840,"date":"2026-02-20T16:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/603840\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T16:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:50:14","slug":"john-harbaugh-taking-caleb-downs-fifth-overall-would-be-just-fine-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/603840\/","title":{"rendered":"John Harbaugh: Taking Caleb Downs fifth overall would be just fine with me"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Harbaugh is coaching a new team for the first time since 2008 and his first year with the Giants will bring another new experience. <\/p>\n

The Giants have the fifth overall pick in the 2026 draft and Harbaugh noted on The Mike Francesa Podcast that he has never been that high in the draft order as a head coach. The Ravens picked left tackle Ronnie Stanley sixth overall in 2016 and Harbaugh told Francesa that it is \u201cpretty exciting to have a pick this high.\u201d <\/p>\n

One player who could be on the board for the Giants at No. 5 is Ohio State safety Caleb Downs and Harbaugh was asked his impressions of the player. Harbaugh called himself a \u201cbig fan\u201d and said he\u2019d take Downs \u201cin a second\u201d if he\u2019s the best available player. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe favor Hall of Fame safeties, so if we have a chance to draft<\/a> a potential future Hall of Fame safety in Caleb Downs, that would be just fine with me,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cWe\u2019ll take the best player. When you draft that high, you take the best player. It\u2019s not a need pick, it\u2019s a best player pick because you\u2019re going for the guy that\u2019s going to be that kind of player. You\u2019re talking about a player that you would like to see someday wearing a gold jacket if possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harbaugh had an impactful safety in Kyle Hamilton in the final years of his run with the Ravens. Downs could give him one to kick off his Giants tenure. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Harbaugh is coaching a new team for the first time since 2008 and his first year with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":603841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-603840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116103992228601248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}