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Does the recent injury news surrounding Caleb Downs change how teams view him on their draft boards? The GBAG Nation debated whether a partially torn meniscus and reports of a degenerative ACL should impact where he’s selected, how much trust teams should place in their doctors, whether Dallas would still consider taking him at No. 12 if he falls, and more.

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00:00Segment is brought to you by the Frankels. If you've been injured in a car or truck wreck, call the
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00:10The Frankels are the go-to car and truck wreck attorneys in Dallas as we are live in spring training.
00:16The report last night, Caleb Downs, maybe a partially torn meniscus in one of his knees and a degenerative ACL.
00:24So the question everybody is asking is, could Caleb Downs fall to this team?
00:30That team, I just saw a story with the Rams, and they're right behind you.
00:33They're asking that out in Los Angeles.
00:37And, you know, if he did fall, would you still want to take him?
00:40I think this is a spot where you've got to trust what your doctors are telling you.
00:43Yeah, I would. I'd take him.
00:44I mean, to me, listen, I think the Cowboys are going to be very comfortable with this one.
00:51I'm sure that, you know, Dr. Cooper, who's one of the best, you know, surgeons in the country,
00:57this very much reminds me of situations that I know I've been in before,
01:02whether it was Larry Allen or Jeremiah Trotter.
01:06You know, you've just got to trust your doctors, but you've also got to know that, you know,
01:11if you're in a situation where those guys are available, man, you've got to do your due diligence on all
01:17of it.
01:18You do.
01:18You've got to bring him in, and you've got to do the physical on him again, and you've got to
01:22go through.
01:23And, you know, listen, he hadn't missed any time with this thing.
01:26No.
01:27It's not like it's, you know, and I talked about Jeremiah Trotter,
01:31and I give Jeff Lurie some credit for this one, the owner from the Eagles.
01:35You know, the doctors at the time go, hey, I can't tell you, Brian, if he's going to play 10
01:38games or 10 years.
01:39And Mr. Lurie said, if we like this guy that much, let's draft him.
01:43What are we doing here?
01:44There's been a lot of degenerative knee guys that have had successful careers, including our very own Ron Leary.
01:50Ron Leary was one of, yeah.
01:51And I'll say this, though.
01:53Listen, I have a feeling that the Cowboys are going to be very comfortable with this particular player if he's
02:00available.
02:01I don't see that being an issue now.
02:04Like I said, you were talking to some teams that I believe that the team, I believe, maybe flagged this.
02:11You're trying to get some clarification with maybe the Bears and picked this one up.
02:17But I've talked to two teams already that are like, no, we don't have it that way.
02:23So, you know, you feel like we were talking about earlier, are you getting ball sacked or you're getting, you
02:28know,
02:29or is this really something, you know, if I get two or three other teams that say, no, there's not
02:34a problem,
02:35then I'm, you know, these doctors and trainers all look at these players completely different.
02:41Sure, yeah.
02:42Completely different.
02:43I mean, and I said the story about Larry Allen, you know, when we were sitting there
02:47and our doctor in Green Bay failed him on a physical rotator cuff problem.
02:52Yeah, he's going to have to have, sorry, can't do this, can't do that.
02:54But, and then every year we played Dallas in the playoffs, Ron Wolfe would walk down to the doctor and
03:00go,
03:01hey, see the 73, he's going to kick our ass today.
03:04Yeah, rotator cuff's looking pretty good.
03:06Yeah.
03:06So, you just got to trust the doctors.
03:10I remember, you guys remember a guy, Dawson, you might remember, Sean Rogers.
03:14Yeah.
03:14Defensive tackle for the Lions.
03:16Yeah.
03:16Okay.
03:17We're sitting there in the draft, and this goes way back again.
03:21Sean Rogers, University of Texas.
03:22Texas, second round, he's got a toe problem, right?
03:25Bunyan?
03:26No, it's got some kind of metal in it or something.
03:29The bunyan's more of a back thing, I think, where the toe kind of gets jetted out.
03:34I have that problem all the time.
03:36Yeah, where the big toe, the bone goes out.
03:38But, yeah, this was something that he had problems with then.
03:41And I'll never forget, like, Jim Maurer, the trainer, and Jim's one of the best ones still with the Cowboys.
03:47Jim's like, tell him, well, we can't draft him because of this.
03:50Can't draft him, can't draft him, can't.
03:51And we get on the clock, and Jerry looks at Jim and goes, tell me one more time why I
03:56can't take this guy.
03:57Please.
03:58Metal in his toe?
03:59Yeah.
03:59He had, like, hardware and stuff.
04:01He had an operation and all that.
04:03And Jerry looked at him and goes, Jim, tell me one more time why I can't draft this guy.
04:08And he went on and had a nice career.
04:10Yeah.
04:10You know?
04:11So you just don't know how it's all going to play.
04:14On the other side of that, you do have Leighton Van Der Esch's neck, who some teams didn't want to
04:19take.
04:19That's true.
04:20And the Cowboys are like, well, we have no problem with it.
04:22I think the concern is based on what I'm reading.
04:25Smith, the linebacker, too.
04:27Oh, Jalen Smith.
04:28That was an all-time mistake.
04:30And then they compounded it by giving him a contract, a second contract.
04:35So congratulations to Jalen Smith for pulling that together and kind of dragging one leg into being a serviceable linebacker
04:41enough to get paid by the Cowboys.
04:42That was a job well done.
04:44Maybe nobody has ever wanted it more and pulled off the unthinkable.
04:47It's kind of a miracle that he was able to play as well as he did.
04:50With drop foot.
04:51Yeah, yeah, yeah, drop foot.
04:52And he was managing to kind of get the job done out there.
04:55Yeah.
04:56And it wasn't until Dan Quinn, was it Dan Quinn that said, what the hell are we doing here?
04:59Yeah, Dan Quinn.
05:00You know, they finally moved on.
05:01But anyway, my point being, some of the reading that I was doing about these two conditions, right, is that
05:08when I looked up deteriorating ACL, it said one of the side effects of that can be a torn meniscus.
05:16Because you're losing the integrity of the structure and how things cushion each other and support each other.
05:22And if the ACL is deteriorating, it can cause extra stress on the meniscus.
05:27And certainly I'm not a knee doctor.
05:28I can only read about this stuff and tell you what I've read.
05:32But, you know, being the injury paranoia guy that I am, I would think if the meniscus was caused by
05:39the degenerative ACL, I don't think we should be taking them at 12.
05:43Is that crazy?
05:44No, it's not crazy.
05:45If that is all true and real and that's what your doctors are seeing and saying, then no, I don't
05:51think that that's worth taking for the same reason like apparently they're not going to be in on Jermon McCoy.
05:56Like they need a guy that can hit the ground running and have no concern that he's got a problem
06:01that he's bringing with him.
06:03You never know what's going to happen on a play-to-play basis.
06:06But you don't want to have something that's already hindering you when you step on the field for as good
06:11as Caleb Downs is.
06:12But if your doctors are saying now everything's fine, then please let him fall to 12.
06:17And I would imagine the doctors in there have seen everything.
06:20They're so aware.
06:22They have layers and layers of knowledge about how the knee works and these different conditions can, you know, impact
06:28things.
06:28But this might be something where you've got to start going to knee specialists, that your regular guys who you
06:35might have on staff that are looking at things are becoming aware now that, hey, a team is looking at
06:40it like this.
06:41Do we need to drill down further, ask more expertise and get a better understanding of it?
06:45And it might evolve.
06:46But Pat McAfee has talked with a number of teams throughout the day, and he has said that he hasn't
06:54talked to a single team yet that would let this news impact their board or would let his medicals from
06:59the combine impact their board when it comes to Caleb Downs.
07:03So, you know, maybe he will be taken.
07:04And at this point, I would like it to be somebody else's issue if there's anything not perfect structurally with
07:11his knee.
07:12Hopefully, you know, a team in the top 10 or 11 is still looking at him because we're starting to
07:17play this game.
07:17If you did lose McCoy over the weekend and you lose Caleb Downs, it's like defensive players right off the
07:23board.
07:23How good is the player going to be available at 12?
07:26Yeah.
07:26If you told me both those guys are kind of out for medical reasons, I have a lot less confidence
07:31in the 12th overall pick.
07:33And I said earlier in the show, I think maybe it's time to start looking at offensive players.
07:37Jeff Cavanaugh and I did Trusted Tape this morning, and we were talking about this, and he was pretty –
07:44ooh, it came straight back.
07:45He was like – the way all this is kind of the news is cycling right now, he's like, I'll
07:53just trade the 12th pick for Crosby.
07:56You know?
07:57Yeah.
07:57I mean, he didn't even flinch.
07:58Ooh, I like that.
07:59He just said, listen, if you're going to tell me I'm just going to lose two of my better defensive
08:04players, and I'm going to maybe have to draft an offensive player here, why don't I just give up 12
08:12and worry about a defensive player at 20?
08:15Yeah.
08:16If that would get it done right now and win the bidding, I've been saying for a while now I'm
08:20just putting 20 on the board and letting the Raiders know if that's good enough to get them.
08:24But in light of that news, I think that's pretty clever.
08:27Yep.
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