COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Safety Caleb Downs is the latest Ohio State standout to declare for the NFL draft.
The two-time AP first-team All-American announced his decision on Wednesday during the “Downs 2 Business” podcast with his brother, Josh Downs, a wide receiver with the Indianapolis Colts.
“Someone told me the other day it's Champagne problems: Either way it's a celebration to go back to school and be with my teammates or get a chance to go the dream I had since I was a kid," Caleb Downs said. “But I think it's time to go to the NFL.”
Downs is projected as a top-10 pick and one of the first defensive players who could be selected in April's draft.
He won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back and the Lott IMPACT Trophy as college football's top safety this season. He also was named the Big Ten's Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year and Tatum-Woodson Defensive Back of the Year.
Downs — who finished ninth in Heisman Trophy voting — was third on the Buckeyes with 68 tackles and also had two interceptions this season. Ohio State lost to Miami in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at the Cotton Bowl, dashing its hopes of consecutive national championships for the first time in school history.
Downs began his career at Alabama before transferring to Ohio State. In 2023, he was the first freshman to lead the Crimson Tide in tackles.
Wide receiver Carnell Tate announced Tuesday that he was forgoing his final year of eligibility to enter the draft.
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Miami wide receiver Malachi Toney (10) chases to recover his fumble after taking a hit from Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, bottom, during the second half of the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal game Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
FILE - Ohio State defensive back Caleb Downs plays against Penn State during an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House refused Thursday to override President Donald Trump's veto of two low-profile bills as Republicans stuck with the president despite their prior support for the measures.
Congress can override a veto with support from two-thirds of the members of the House and the Senate. The threshold is rarely reached. In this case, Republicans opted to avoid a fight in an election year over bills with little national significance. The two vetoes were the first of Trump's second term.
One bill Trump vetoed was designed to help local communities finance the construction of a pipeline to provide water to tens of thousands in Colorado. The other designated a site in Everglades National Park as a part of the Miccosukee Indian Reservation.
The White House did not issue any veto threats prior to passage of the bills, so Trump's scathing comments in his veto message came as a surprise to sponsors of the legislation. Ultimately, his vetoes had the effect of punishing those who had opposed the president’s positions on other issues.
The water pipeline bill came from Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a longtime Trump ally who broke with the president in November to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The bill to give the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians more control of some of its tribal lands would have benefited one of the groups that sued the administration over an immigration detention center known as “ Alligator Alcatraz.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said leadership was not urging — or “whipping” — members on how to vote. He said he would personally vote to sustain the vetoes and the president's message opposing the bills “sounded very reasonable to me.” He said he understood the concerns of the Colorado lawmakers about the veto and would work to help them on the pipeline issue going forward.
Boebert said she has been talking to colleagues individually about overriding Trump's veto, but wasn't sure about hitting the two-thirds threshold. Some colleagues “don't want to go against the president,” she said.
On the House floor, Boebert told colleagues that the communities targeted through the bill could see the cost of their drinking water triple without the legislation.
“This bill makes good not only on a 60-year plus commitment without wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local and federal investments, but it also makes good on President Trump's commitment to rural communities, to Western water issues,” Boebert said.
When asked by a reporter if the veto was in response to her signing a discharge petition to release the Epstein files, she said, “I certainly hope not.”
Trump did not allude to Boebert in his veto of her legislation, but raised concerns about the cost of the water pipeline, saying “restoring fiscal sanity is vital to economic growth and the fiscal health of the Nation.”
Rep. Jeff Hurd, another Colorado Republican, also urged colleagues to override the veto, saying the vote was not about defying Trump but defending Congress.
“If Congress walks away from a 60-year commitment mid-project, then no Western project is truly secure," Hurd said.
The Florida legislation had been sponsored by Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez, whom Trump has endorsed. In his veto message, Trump was critical of the tribe, saying, “The Miccosukee Tribe has actively sought to obstruct reasonable immigration policies that the American people decisively voted for when I was elected.”
Before the House voted to pass his bill, Gimenez said it would simply allow an inhabited tribal village to be included in the Miccosukee Reservation, empowering the tribe to manage water flow into the Everglades and raise structures within the camp to prevent flooding. He did not speak on the floor prior to the vote.
Instead, Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida urged colleagues to vote to override.
“This bill is so narrowly focused that (the veto) makes absolutely no sense other than the interest in vengeance that seems to have emanated in this result,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said he would vote to override the president's vetoes.
“They passed unanimously,” Bacon said of the bills. “And I don't know if I agree with the explanations for the veto."
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said she would vote to sustain the vetoes.
“My constituents want me to stand with Trump,” Malliotakis said.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., left, speaks with Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., during a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - Airboats carry members of a task force that brings together federal, state, tribal and local agencies working to restore and protect the Florida Everglades, on a field visit to the Miccosukee Indian Reservation ahead of a task force meeting hosted by the Miccosukee Tribe, April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
