What makes Downs generational, though, is not that he is a freak athlete. Those are common.
It's his ESP. It's his ability to know the entire route design almost instantly, and know exactly how to tailor his technique to it, even sometimes outside of his assignment.
In this I described Downs as "defensive stem cells."
He is a blank check written out to whatever problem you need to solve. Anarumo's chameleon system worked because Bates did that, but Downs is better. He helps with *every problem the Bengals have*