From the NFL Draft to AI to Outer Space: My Week Searching and Where it Led

From Artificial Intelligence to ocean depths to outer space, the world resounds of the glory of God! My week started with some football queries on the site sports Sports Reference. I was looking at college players that interest me for the 2026 NFL draft. From there I used Google AI to help evaluate the players that my query provided. As in the past I was totally impressed with the data provided by the AI queries. It got me thinking about God and how He has provided humans with the intelligence to develop such useful tools. It sparked an interest in learning more about anything as an insight into God. I explored two videos on the ocean and outer space. A desire to learn more about God ignited a desire to learn more about His creations. Allow me to share with you my search for God this week.

It all started by my fixation on draft prospect safety Caleb Downs. I feel that he is one of the so called generational talents in this year’s draft. Since the Giants are in need of defensive back help he is one of my favorite fraft targets. Lookin at his career statistics I created the following query to ensure that I get him and see who else falls in that range or category. I specifically was looking for safeties but did not limit the query to any position. Here is the query I came up with

For combined games in multiple seasons, from 2023 to 2025, requiring Interceptions >= 5 and Passes Defended >= 10 and Tackles Combined >= 200 and Tackles Solo >= 150

We arrive at this short list of potential draft prospects

		Tackles					Def Interceptions
Player	G	Sk	Solo	Ast	Comb	TFL	Int	Yds	PD
Dillon Thieneman	39	2	188	118	306	10	8	58	14
A.J. Haulcy	36	0	165	95	260	1.5	8	161	16
Caleb Downs	44	1.5	164	93	257	16	6	18	12
Jacob Rodriguez	32	6	161	126	287	22.5	6	50	12
Ty Benefield	41	3	162	73	235	18	5	50	12

So a query on statistics is great but are they good football players? I decided to utilize Google AI to start off the investigation. Creating a question for Google AI I come up with

Where are these college players now, what position do they play, how are they doing and how do they compare to previous draft prospects: Dillon Thieneman A.J. Haulcy Caleb Downs Jacob Rodriguez Ty Benefield

What follows is AI responses to this and other slight variations on the question.

Current Status and 2025 Performance

Player	Current Team	Position	2025 Performance Highlights
Caleb Downs	Ohio State	Safety	Won the 2025 Jim Thorpe Award and Lott IMPACT Trophy. Recorded 60 tackles and 2 INTs for the nation’s #1 defense. 89.6 PFF coverage grade; consensus Top-10 prospect
Jacob Rodriguez	Texas Tech	Linebacker	Won the 2025 Butkus, Lombardi, and Nagurski awards. Finished 5th in Heisman voting with 7 forced fumbles and 4 INTs.
Dillon Thieneman	Oregon	Safety	Transferred from Purdue; earned 1st-Team Academic All-American. Recorded 92–96 tackles and 2 INTs, helping Oregon to the Orange Bowl. First-team All-American
A.J. Haulcy	LSU	Safety	Transferred from Houston; named 1st-Team All-SEC. Recorded 3 INTs and ranked 53rd on PFF’s Top 101 players of 2025. First-team All-American
Ty Benefield	Transfer Portal	Safety	Led Boise State to a Mountain West title with 107 tackles and 2 INTs. Entered the transfer portal in late December 2025.

Player Details

Caleb Downs: Widely considered a generational talent, Downs is ranked as the No. 1 safety and a top-10 overall prospect for the 2026 draft. He recently completed a decorated two-year career at Ohio State after transferring from Alabama, maintaining elite grades in both run defense and coverage. Widely compared to Eric Berry (No. 5 overall in 2010) due to his pro-ready instincts and versatility. He is also frequently likened to Kyle Hamilton for his “positionless” ability to play deep safety, in the box, or in the slot. Widely considered the #1 defensive player in America in 2025, he was a unanimous All-American, the Jim Thorpe Award winner (top DB), and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

Jacob Rodriguez: After returning to Texas Tech for his final year of eligibility, Rodriguez established himself as the best linebacker in the country, sweeping major awards including the Butkus, Lombardi, and Bednarik. He is currently participating in the Senior Bowl, where he has been noted as a standout performer. Compared to Jack Sanborn (Bears) as a high-instinct, productive linebacker who may lack “wow” measurables. Scouts note his 94.8 PFF run-defense grade is elite, though concerns about his height and arm length mirror past prospects like Henry To’oTo’o. Had a massive 2025 season, winning the Butkus Award (top LB), Bronko Nagurski Trophy, and was a unanimous All-American. He finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting as a defender, demonstrating elite turnover ability (7 forced fumbles, 4 INTs in 2025).

Dillon Thieneman: Following a standout freshman year at Purdue, Thieneman transferred to Oregon for the 2025 season. He helped lead the Ducks to a College Football Playoff appearance and is projected as a Day 1 or Day 2 pick in the upcoming NFL draft. Often compared to Daxton Hill but with a more aggressive tackling profile. Analysts like Daniel Jeremiah view him as a first-round talent capable of playing both safety spots and nickel. In 2025, he was a first-team All-American and First-team All-Big Ten selection for the Ducks, often playing a hybrid role that allowed him to drop into the box or play deep.

A.J. Haulcy: Haulcy spent his final collegiate season at LSU after transferring from Houston. He earned First-team All-American honors and led the SEC in several defensive metrics, cementing his status as a Top 50 draft prospect. Draws comparisons to Kevin Byard for his elite zone coverage instincts and ball skills. He is projected as a Day 2 pick (Rounds 2–3) and is considered one of the best free safety prospects after Caleb Downs. Had a strong 2025 season for LSU after being a standout at Houston, recording 49 solo tackles and 3 interceptions in 2025. He is recognized as a ball-hawking safety with over 2,100 snaps of experience.

A search in AI on how these players were ranked on draft big boards yields

Player	Position	School	Consensus Big Board Rank	Notable Rankings & Grades
Caleb Downs	S	Ohio State	Top 5	#1 S (Kiper, Miller, PFF); #4 Overall (ESPN Consensus)
Dillon Thieneman	S	Oregon	Top 50	#3 S (Draft Buzz); Round 2 Grade; #29 (Bleacher Report)
A.J. Haulcy	S	LSU	Top 60	#5 S (Draft Buzz); #49 (PFF); #60 (CBS Sports)
Jacob Rodriguez	LB	Texas Tech	Top 100	#93 (Yahoo); Round 3-4 Grade; #13 LB (Draft Buzz)

You do have to do some fact checking on the AI responses but in general it provided a good overall picture of these players and answered my questions on whether they were good football players. later in the week I ran other queries to get high production prospects for the Giants at key positions of need. I cross checked the prospects with Pro Football Reference Big Board to determine when in the draft they may be available. The list is here – My Giants draft board

As I opened the blog, the week progressed with the thought that God created the wonders of this world for us to explore, learn, utilize and subdue.

God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth.- Genesis 1:28 (to Adam and Eve)

God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed—the sixth day. – Genesis 1:31

Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it. – Genesis 9:7 (to Noah and his family)

To learn more about God’s world I watched a video on the creatures of the oceans. The depth of the ocean was presented as various levels with all containing living creatures. The average ocean depth goes down 2.5 miles. The deepest parts of the ocean is estimated to be 6.8 miles. There are creatures that live in almost total darness in the depths of the ocean. Some project light, others live by warm crevices on the ocean floor, others live off dead submerged whale carcusses. Some are transluscent. They are trully fascinating creatures. I recommend searching for a video on the subject. There are many and I cannot recall the one that I saw.

From there I went to outer space as another unknown region of exploration.

When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and stars that you set in place—

What is man that you are mindful of him,

and a son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him little less than a god,

crowned him with glory and honor.

For the space video there are also plenty. I watched this one and found it interesting – BBC Earth Science.

It is natural to attribute the wonderful works of nature to God. They are so beyond our creations. However it is also good to appreciate the developments and inventions of humankind. Realizing that they are also the work of God who in His benevolence created humans with intelligence and the world with order. Thereby allowing us to make sense of the world and use its natural laws and our desire for goodness and beauty to produce art, music, technology, tools. To quote Saint Thomas Acquinas

“A work of art represents the mind of the maker.”

“God is an artist, and the universe is His work of art.”

Or better still Psalm 139!

Feature image: Marianne O’Leary, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons